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finall wouldn't say eating, more disappointing. In our UK group there is always someone asking where to get batteries from, keep in mind there are only around 60 Hummers over here in total. Perhaps you're right, we get all the duff-ones.
calif phil good to know you've run AGM's OK, was that in Hummers i.e. alternators that pre-date AGM technology?
So here's the thing, "Group" categorisation must be an American thing, it's so hard to find UK suppliers that work to this standard, but you're right on sizes, however I'm pretty much stuck with what's available. There here are tons of "top posts" here, but few with side-terminals, also top posts have the +VE post on the opposite side.
There's little demand for side-posts over here, so I think this must be part of the problem.
Couple of options at the moment:-
Powerplus Advanced XD 80AH 800CCA 10.25" x 7" x 7.3" (not AGM)
$369 Odyssey 34M-PC1500 Extreme Series AGM Battery 68AH 850CCA (these seems to American)
is the best I can get, not sure what group it would be.
Putting "Groups" aside, I try to get the largest Ampere Hour and CCA I can, my last one was 75AH and 800CCA (75-80 over here)
Advanced XD Car Batteries @1/3 the price. Change/make your battery cables to top mount and get the largest battery that fits. Also comes with a 5yr warranty? Keep your old charged for backup.
Actually been looking on that exact same page, so that's good confirmation.
My old battery is done though it might power the electric fencing at the farm.
Again thanks to everyone who helped out here, and I've just noticed the forum's emoji's added to my last post are missing, makes my comments look even more bland and boring.
Out of curiosity, here are some more emoji's to see if they work
DISCHARGED BATTERY SHORTENS THE LIFE OF THE BATTERY!
Monitor the voltage. Keep in mind short trips does not fully charge the battery. I use a cheap LED Digital Voltmeter that plugs into the cigarette lighter to monitor voltage. When the volts dip low, I connect the battery charger and give it a few hours on a 2amp charge.
Even though 80 percent of the capacity remains when a car battery dips to around 10.5 volts, the battery is considered to be fully discharged because taking the cycle any deeper will cause irreversible damage to the plates through excessive sulfation.
While normal sulfation is reversible, excessively draining a battery, or leaving it in a state of discharge, will allow the soft lead sulfate to crystallize. At that point, charging the battery will still cause some of the sulfation to reverse, but any crystallized lead sulfate will remain on the plates. This sulfate cannot, under normal circumstances, return to a solution in the electrolyte, which permanently reduces the available output of the battery.
The other detrimental effect of allowing crystallized lead sulfate to form is that it effectively shortens the lifespan of the battery in an empirically measurable way. If too much of this crystallization is allowed to occur, the battery will no longer be able to provide enough amperage to start the engine, and it will have to be replaced.
Well, my LED Voltmeter looks identical to yours (cases are the same anyway) so here's a picture interesting.
The little 12V meter's current drain data is 40mA at 12.7V. A few other figures are:-
10.0V = 29.5mA
12.0 V = 37.3mA
14.5V = 47.2mA
Returning to parasitic drain this what the GM manuals says:-
The battery run down time will vary depending on cold cranking amperage (CCA) and reserve capacity (RC). If the CCA and RC are higher, then the battery run down time would be longer. If the CCA and RC are lower, then the battery run down time would be shorter. The graph below indicates roughly how many days a 690 CCA battery with a 110 minute RC (60.5 AH) starting at 80 percent state of charge will last with a constant current draw until it reaches 50 percent state of charge. Differences in battery rating and temperature will affect the results.
and here is the table they list:-
Putting in perspective, and extrapolating a little, here is the above expressed as a graph:-
So assuming a parasitic drain of 25mA for the truck, plus 37mA for the little meter, this is 62mA and works out to be around 13 days i.e. about half. Or for just the little voltmeter alone 20 days.
I managed to find GM bulletin #02-06-03-010A on Battery Parasitic Drain, they quote a typical drain range of 7-12mA and a maximum of 30mA
According to my math 10mA would be about around 40 days.
My replacement battery will be here tomorrow, so I'll measure the PD (without any adapters in) as my curiosity is aroused, seems a solar panel is looking good!
Yes definitely DON'T leave it connected. My aux plugs are hot at all times, I just pull it out a bit to turn off. I can reach in to check battery voltage at anytime without ignition key nor opening the hood.
Also on checking for parasitic drain, you probably know this, but you need to wait a couple of hours before all computer modules fully go to sleep. I want to think one of the modules waits like 120 minutes before going to sleep but I might be wrong as it has been a while since I looked into it.
Not sure myself either, I have the GM parasitic test document in-front of me, it says:-
16. Turn the J 38758 **** to the OFF position. Wait 15 minutes for most vehicles.
17. Check and record the current reading.
Pretty sure J 38758 is just away of switching in or out the multimeter, I suspect that breaking the battery connection would cause various systems to wake-up and start drawing current all over again.
The document also mentions OnStar (not fitted on mine) and RVC (Regulated Voltage Control) the latter of which I do not know anything about. Apparently the units wake-up and go back asleep at regular intervals which would cloud any measurements.
My battery condition tester died, had it for years, but suddenly it decided to longer give a reliable health value, so a new Topdon BT100 is on order.
Pulled the AUX PWR fuse and PD dropped from 80 to 40mA but it's still not good enough I suspect. I was astonished to discover the previous owner had an RAC Trackstar GPS system fitted, where it is is a mystery. It will have been a professional fit by the RAC which is huge company, but they'll only talk money, so no real help expected from them although they claim it only runs with the ignition on..
Looks like I'll have to pull the center console to trace the wiring, I certainly don't recall seeing anything previously.
Anyway some progress made on reducing drain. I'm going to pull all the fuses one--by-one, I suspect the volts-drop across the them will be too low to detect with only mA flowing, I have actually measured all the small fuses under the hood, even the AUX PWR drop was too small to detect.
The data I've seen so far talks about 7-12mA typically with a maximum of 30mA, from the manual GM the test procedure mentions 25mA but I cant find a figure, it all looks subjective.
So is there a definitive or typically figure for the Hummer or would any one know what theirs actually measured? It would be useful to know what it should be plus or minus a percentage with the variations in electronic devices I imagine.
In the meantime I'll keep investigating, starting with the LPG installation, but it looks like I'm looking for around another 25mA, it's a bit like Apollo 13 moon mission ....
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