drove to pick up some drones

plowed some snow with it.

she seems to be running better than ever!

Installed new battery terminals.
Last year I had problems with not starting due to loose terminals, so I made sure they were clean and had a very light smear of terminal grease, and cinched 'em down a bit more, and a bit more, and a bit more, until the problem finally went away... today when the issue arose again, there was no more tightening to be had, as the clamp had stretched and split.
So I bought some brass terminals... see if that works any better.

Any suggestions for good battery terminals?

Installed my 1.7 HS this afternoon.

What I'd always done before and am back to doing now is to use the epoxy coated lead terminals, and just replace them when they stretch too much due to removal and reinstallation. Five or eight or whatever bucks a throw just isn't all that big a deal, especially these days when that much gasoline in the tank barely moves the fuel gauge. The trick to it is to never overtorque the terminals -- most top post terminals require no more than 120 inch-pounds and anything more just compromises the conductivity and mechanical integrity of the connection, and in many cases, of the post itself. At proper torque the lead terminal stretches a little bit, and more torque just stretches it further and weakens the connection rather than improving it.

For most folks, apparently, proper torque feels too loose. Use the torque wrench until your elbow gets self-calibrated. Or every time, if you've a defective elbow.

Oh, yeah: The danger of brass terminals is that where overtorqueing a lead terminal ruins the terminal first, overtorqueing a brass terminal ruins the post first. I like brass in marine and coastal environments but you have to be careful with them. Terminals are cheaper than batteries.

Speaking of batteries.

I've got an Autolite, which is like the Oreillys/Advance brand. Bought in Dec. 2008. I've been a little cautious of it lately, but no issues to report. I've only done a basic voltage check, 12v even, after it had already sat a good 4 hours. Night temps have been down to 32F. I need to do a start check.

General consensus is average age roughly 5-6 years. I'm on the upper end of that it seems. I'll be seeing some colder temps over the next couple months.

Any suggestions? Leave it? Proactively get a Sears Odyssey/ Diehard? Other?

Well, speaking of batteries, replaced mine today.

I had an interstate 750cca in it since 4/08 with never a problem. The mercury dipped down to 14 last night and she barely started for work. I checked it at work and it's toast. It's supposed to drop down around -10 with bad wind tomorrow night so I stopped and picked up a new generic 810cca AGM battery from the same place. The interstate worked out pretty well so hopefully this will go the distance too.

I use those brass terminals on both ends. I just snug ththemtry to wiggle the terminals and if they don't mvoe that's fine for me.


I had an old 9 year old battery in the truck once. It had been there since we bought it. It was like 400 bucks new.


Needless to say I got the advance auto house brand. Gold series.

I have 2 of the autocraft(advance auto) gold series batteries in my truck, and the truck has been sitting for most of the last 9 months. I start it here and there, but it really hasn't moved.

As jim said. It was about 9° here this morning, and was darn close to that yesterday afternoon, and the truck started up just fine.

I'd stick with the advance batteries. Mine are going on 4 years old, and they've been great!

So you guys are saying to be proactive and replace it?