# Battery's



## okenadie (Feb 20, 2013)

OK. In the last couple days. I have managed to buy two large garden tractors. Neither of which have good battery's in them. The manuals don't tell me what to get. I don't want to try to use the one's from the smaller lawn tractors. I''ll just burn something up. So, given that the one is a Craftsman 18. With a 18HP motor. Just how do I find the right one for it. HELP.


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## ben70b (Aug 29, 2012)

I tend to buy the biggest batter they will fit in my battery box, hell I have deep cycle boat batteries in my pick ups and in the 70, the big tractors have multiple 6 volts and my garden tractors have car batteries


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## wjjones (May 28, 2010)

I went with this one for my ys 4500 with a 24 hp Briggs v-twin engine, and it does very well.

http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/sto...amp;-garden-tractor-battery-420-cranking-amps


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## Mickey (Aug 14, 2010)

ben70b said:


> I tend to *buy the biggest batter they will fit in my battery box,* hell I have deep cycle boat batteries in my pick ups and in the 70, the big tractors have multiple 6 volts and my garden tractors have car batteries


Same here.

FYI, there are only a handful of companies that make lead acid batteries. For all those brands you love or hate, they are being produced from these few manufacturers. And I'm talking BIG named brands sold all over the country.


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## wjjones (May 28, 2010)

I checked the one I listed in the link it is 450 cranking amps, and 350 cold cranking amps my other mower has a 285 ca, and 230 cca battery.


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## ben70b (Aug 29, 2012)

I had a long time friend who is a mechanic, till he opened his own shop and screwed me, anyhow he is very educated in mechanics. He claimes there is only 3 battery makers in the world, they just put different names on em. Although he can't replace a thermostat I believe he probably knows this useless piece of information


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## wjjones (May 28, 2010)

ben70b said:


> I had a long time friend who is a mechanic, till he opened his own shop and screwed me, anyhow he is very educated in mechanics. He claimes there is only 3 battery makers in the world, they just put different names on em. Although he can't replace a thermostat I believe he probably knows this useless piece of information



Yep I believe that its about the same way with lawn mowers my Craftsman ys4500 is built by Husqvarna so I could see Johnson controls, and the other battery makers doing the same thing.


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## Country Boy (Mar 18, 2010)

We sell three different brands of batteries at work. The Intersate and Ameristart batteries are both built by Johnson Controls. The PowerVolt ones are built in Mexico by a different manufacturer. The Ameristart batteries are sold by Northern Battery which owns something like 5 different brands. They are all the same battery with different labels on them. You can sometimes tell the manufacturer of the battery by looking at the case. Different manufacturers use slightly different cases for their batteries. If you put a Ameristart and an Interstate next to each other the cases are virtually identical except for the color and the Interstate logo molded into the side. The PowerVolt ones are different for the same BCI numbered battery.

One thing I look for when buying batteries is their weight. Compare different brands and heft them. We replace a lot of Fleet Farm batteries at work. When I compare the FF battery to the new battery we sell, the FF battery is about 1/3 lighter. They don't hold up as long as a result, but they are about 1/2 the price.


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## wjjones (May 28, 2010)

Country Boy said:


> We sell three different brands of batteries at work. The Intersate and Ameristart batteries are both built by Johnson Controls. The PowerVolt ones are built in Mexico by a different manufacturer. The Ameristart batteries are sold by Northern Battery which owns something like 5 different brands. They are all the same battery with different labels on them. You can sometimes tell the manufacturer of the battery by looking at the case. Different manufacturers use slightly different cases for their batteries. If you put a Ameristart and an Interstate next to each other the cases are virtually identical except for the color and the Interstate logo molded into the side. The PowerVolt ones are different for the same BCI numbered battery.
> 
> One thing I look for when buying batteries is their weight. Compare different brands and heft them. We replace a lot of Fleet Farm batteries at work. When I compare the FF battery to the new battery we sell, the FF battery is about 1/3 lighter. They don't hold up as long as a result, but they are about 1/2 the price.




Thankyou for that info CB. I noticed that Briggs battery I got weighs alot more than the other batteries I have bought in the past.


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