I couldn't find Exide around at all, and nobody at the company answers the phone anymore. There was a bankruptcy filing or a huge layoff. In any event-- I finally got tired of the issues with Interstate. I've never gotten more than 2 years out of a battery. Finally on the 5th battery, still under warranty with 6 months to go, would not hold the voltage, and the alternator was working overtime all the time to charge it. The voltage slowly climbed up and up and it will never go into float. After getting the run around, I left, and did some more research. I ended up with a Deka AGM Intimidator, and ordered another for the 2nd battery to test.
I have to say, I was immediately impressed with the company I dealt with in Texas. I e-mailed them about 9pm, and got a phone call shortly thereafter. Bob from
http://advancebattery.net/ called me. Took the time to answer my questions, and provided his cell phone number. That is service. Deka is the battery you will commonly find in Ambulances, Fire Trucks, and Military Vehicles as well. I was impressed, and the batteries are made in the US. I was provided a lot of detail about how they are manufactured, you just don't get that. I plan to recommending the Deka for our battery power box after thoroughly testing it as well.
My immediate impressions are that it is an awesome battery. Before (last couple of batteries) the system voltage is always running at 14.1 to 14.5, even up to 14.8 or higher if it's sat a day or so. With the old SC80 Traxide this means, the primary battery is dragging your yellow top, or other battery voltage down. When you keep the voltage down on an AGM, you are going to lose capacity. Starting out with the Deka, it immediately floated and settled around 13.5 volts, and after the first real drive, it settled at 13.2/3. This is great in my opinion, I have never ever seen the Interstate piece of junk lower than 13.7, say, if you drove 500 miles.
The other issue, is with the solar system, I could never achieve float with both batteries, while I could float the Yellow Top in less than an hour.
So, I'm going all Deka and will see how it goes. Presently I've track battery voltage, and approximate temperature year over year. and plan to do a Facebook post, plotting a year in the life of an Interstate battery, versus a Deka.
Here is a battery selector link, bear in mind, the premium AGM is what I recommend the 9A94 for the LR3/LR4
http://www.dekacatalog.com/
Here is a link to an example analysis.
http://www.disco3.co.uk/gallery/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=11463&pos=0
I'll post up a facebook link once I figure out how to extract the data through an API and post it automatically.
