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General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
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Message started by Oldfeller on 07/08/10 at 05:16:43

Title: Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
Post by Oldfeller on 07/08/10 at 05:16:43

Oh the joys of a Wal-Mart battery are so many, it is hard to count them all ....

Wal-Mart is always open Sundays, holidays -- it don't matter

Wal-Mart stocks both a 14-xx and 12-xx battery, the two sizes I use in my two bikes

The batteries are packaged dry, which means I get a fresh battery every time

The Everstart batteries are pressurized sealed with nitrogen gas, so the plates are totally oxide free

They put enough acid in the acid pack to fill the battery up

(yes Virginia, I go beyond the full mark and evenly split the available acid which gives me lots of extra time before having to add water -- an advantage you should take advantage of too)

They put a battery puke tube on the bike for a purpose you know, and no, the extra acid does not go out the puke tube, it sits in the battery doing its job)

The Wal-Mart battery lasts just as long as any other motorcycle battery
(and by using the extra acid you actually get longer life because you don't ever run it bone dry)

and lastly, it costs about half as much as a motorcycle shop battery

(NOTE: you may have to fiddle with your cables a bit and run the long puke tube over the top of the battery and down the B. box channel to use a universal battery, but once you do that you can always find a Wal-Mart in any decent sized town while traveling, so you can always find a cheap battery if you need one)

Title: Re: Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 07/08/10 at 05:46:49

smartypants

Title: Re: Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
Post by earlytimz on 07/08/10 at 05:51:26

I've never had a problem with them either. You don't have to do this, but put a full charge on that sucker before you use it. That helps to get it off to a good start! (pun intended)

Title: Re: Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 07/08/10 at 06:43:18

OF, you saying Id get a bit more acid than the battery actually calls for ?

Title: Re: Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
Post by Oldfeller on 07/08/10 at 06:50:30

Yes, the acid pack will put the largest battery between the lines -- it provides a little extra acid for all the smaller batteries.

And yep, always charge a new battery at NO MORE THAN 2 AMPS until it bubbles good (that's the battery's way of telling you it's full of electrons and the hydrometer would read "full charge" if you owned one and actually used it)

Title: Re: Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
Post by Overdrive on 07/08/10 at 07:17:04

Got my battery from Advance Auto for about $45, filled it myself, and don't see myself having any problems with it any time soon. :)

Title: Re: Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
Post by Oldfeller on 07/08/10 at 09:06:16

$30 from Wal-Mart -- remember to take the old one with you or they charge you a $9 core charge

(don't ask me why -- I dunno. Jest give them the old battery and you don't have to understand it)

Title: Re: Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
Post by Paladin. on 07/08/10 at 11:39:43

I am lazy. http://www.bigcrank.com/category/suzuki-l650-savage-all-battery.html -- AGM, $77 delivered to the house by UPS, pull out of the box and into the motorcycle, no acid, no charging, nothing; just box to bike and ride. Can be left for three months and it will be ready to start without no trickle charge.

Title: Re: Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
Post by Oldfeller on 07/08/10 at 16:05:55

No cheap?

No charging bubbles?

No cheating on the acid?

No getting over on the easy local availability and low low price?

(sob)

No joy .......

:(

Title: Re: Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
Post by bill67 on 07/08/10 at 16:09:50

I wonder why wal mart doesn't have the right neg and pos Is the s40 the only bike that way

Title: Re: Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
Post by Oldfeller on 07/08/10 at 16:15:36

..... and now I won't even bother telling you about resurrecting my obsolete 1992 XV 535 from stator regulator rectifier death by using a modern 2006 year model $19.00 (7 wire) gotten off a wrecked 1000cc GSXR ebay unit.

From dead dead dead obsolete can't get parts for it to a nice exact steady charging voltage of 13.32 volts for only $19.00 and some soldering.

.... them modern electronics, don't ya gotta love 'um?

joy comes in small packages as you get older and poorer

:)

Title: Re: Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
Post by Oldfeller on 07/08/10 at 16:18:06

No Bill, most bikes don't line up exactly with the universal post batteries.

Most bikes (other than mebbe a Hurley) will require you to fiddle with the cables that one time or else you will always have to pay $77 or up for a "correctly fitting" battery.

=============

Riddle me this, why don't they put the posts in the "middle" centered position on the top of the universal battery with a 2 side attack post so you could put it in any way you needed to (by rotation) and attach it from any side of the 2 way attack posts?

THEN it would really be a universal battery .....

but then anybody could do it !!

Title: Re: Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
Post by WD on 07/12/10 at 17:58:12

My Wal-mart battery lasted a whopping 4 months. On a 3/4 amp charger for the last day and a half, I now have a yellow headlight, no other lights. It'll come back, I guess. It just started to fizz an hour ago.

The local sopuki stealership wants $109 (plus tax) for the stock battery. The indie shop gets $70 (plus tax) for a 14LA2. Wal-mart? $42 plus the governor's cut.

I had to notch my battery box for the LA2, the cables were too short to reroute. No biggie, side panel pretty much hides it. Now if I could just relocate it to that shelf off the exhaust hanger bracket and lose the chrome lump (I despise chrome)...

Title: Re: Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
Post by bill67 on 07/12/10 at 19:33:54

3/4 amp is not a charger.

Title: Re: Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
Post by Charon on 07/12/10 at 20:03:06

Once again, Bill is wrong. 3/4 amp IS a charger - just a low rate charger. That just means it will take longer.

Title: Re: Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
Post by Routy on 07/12/10 at 23:37:10

I don't know who makes their cycle/ATV batteries, but they sure aren't made by Walmart. The 6 yr old "Everstart" starting battery in my motor home is made by Johnson Controls, and is still going strong. Some of their deep cycle batteries are made by Excide, others by US Battery. So many times people badmouth WM batteries,....just as if they are made in china for WM, when in reality they are most likely the same battery that you will get at 90% of the auto supply stores, made by one of the 3 major US battery mfgs, only w/ a different name on them.

Title: Re: Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
Post by WD on 07/14/10 at 16:06:21

Won't use a big charger on a bike battery. That little bomb gets hot way too fast... I've had more than one bike battery pop while charging at more than an amp and a half, 6 volt, 12 volt, little toy Trail 90 spec or 80 inch Chief. Charge them deep, charge them slow, and if it takes more than 36 hours at 1/2 amp, the battery is junk.

Picked up another one on the way home today. The 4 month old battery is completed chalked up. Too bad the bike battery warranty is a month...

Title: Re: Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
Post by Routy on 07/14/10 at 22:03:14

According to the experts, most batteries don't just die a natural death, they are tortured to death prematurely, from either being run dry from over charging on an unregulated charger, or more common, never being fully charged,......sitting around 1/2 dead most the time. And this is one reason why the short 90 day warrantee.

4053170 wrote:

Title: Re: Joys of the Wal-Mart Battery ....
Post by wingsout on 07/15/10 at 16:10:03

I've had one in mine(05 S40)since the snow melted---no problems---the puke tube is on the "wrong" side; not a big deal though.