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As you turn on any electronic devices in your truck, it's drawing away power from your truck battery. This lowers your battery life and can cause even permanent damage. The good news is, there are certain ways to take care of the battery to ensure that it lasts longer for powering various truck systems. Repairs can be costly, so learning how to get more power out of the truck battery by not abusing it is a better option. Battery maintenance is a small but important part of proper truck care. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. At Specialized Truck Repair, we make it our mission to provide our valued customers with the highest quality battery repair services for their heavy-duty trucks. We service, repair, and replace light, medium, and heavy truck batteries. In this article, we share some information about some ways to ensure that you get the most out of your truck battery every time you start the engine.
Make sure to always turn off your truck ignition and accessories when they are not in use, as this will drain the battery over time. Remember that truck wiring is made for maximum amperage starting ability, but isn't designed to power accessories like heated seats or DVD players for extended periods of time. It's also important to remember that it takes much more energy to start the engine than it does to keep it running once started so turning off the truck at idle can be a big help with regard to giving it more power on every startup.
You might think keeping your truck battery warm in winter and cool in summer might do damage… but you would be wrong. Not only do truck batteries come fully charged, but they're made to operate just fine between -40° F to +158° F. That means extreme cold and hot temperatures won't hurt battery life or battery performance, so never use your truck heater or air conditioner on 'Max' to warm up the battery before starting the engine.
Don't keep truck batteries fully charged all the time. This sounds counter-intuitive, but these batteries need to be 'cycled'. Cycling is just another word for running batteries down and then recharging them back up again. Allowing your batteries to partially discharge before recharging keeps the battery plates inside from getting too mushy. Prolonged overcharging causes lead sulfate crystals to build up on truck battery plates causing permanent damage that reduces battery life expectancy.
When you're not using your truck, make sure your headlights are turned off or dimmed instead of left bright all night because this will drain power away from the battery every time they are used. Truck lights should always be turned off or dimmed when accessories like heaters or radios are in use as truck lights consume a lot of battery power the same as some truck accessories do.
When it comes to truck batteries, age matters. The fact that you only replace truck batteries every five years doesn't mean their maximum capacity is old at five years and dropping down from there. Rather, these batteries actually lose a small percentage of their power every day through internal corrosion and degradation of the active material inside the battery casing even if they're just sitting on a shelf. So if your truck battery is two years old, its actual age is closer to one year because it's already lost 1/12th of its total life by sitting around waiting for you to buy it.
Experience truck accessory electrical issues like headlight problems or dome light failure? Your truck's electrical console might be to blame. If you know that your lights are dimming after the truck is started, it's probably due to a loose connection in your battery cable terminals. This can happen for many reasons, but truck batteries are shipped fully charged. Having your battery terminals cleaned thoroughly is essential to make sure your headlights shine bright when you need them.
Battery Corrosion
You might not think too much about truck battery corrosion, but operator care should include battery corrosion removal. The truck's electrical system is designed to protect against battery acid leaks, and these terminals are made of lead, which can corrode easily if not well maintained. A truck battery is made of multiple cells and cell connectors, but if those connections start to corrode, it can cause truck batteries to short out.
Truck Alternators
A truck alternator is designed to make sure accessories work properly when drivers need them. But battery power can be drained if these accessories are working when the truck isn't running. A no accessory warning light means that some battery power remains in reserve and you still have a full supply of electrical voltage available for the rest of your day's activities, but it's important to note that a no accessory indication also means your truck battery might be losing power over time without you knowing it.
At Specialized Truck Repair, truck battery repair is what we do best. We provide truck owners throughout Tennessee and Mississippi with high-quality repairs that give our customers peace of mind knowing that their heavy-duty truck batteries will start every time. From obvious indicators like truck lights coming on when they shouldn't to less visible warnings like truck battery draining when not in use or truck accessory overuse, it's important to be able to identify issues quickly and know where to go for expert truck repair services. For quality truck battery repair, pick up the phone and call our team today.
