When it rains
It pours- or it was sure pouring here last night at Chez Og. A horrible pelting rainstorm turned into sleet and snow late in the evening. Normally, I’d be inside unconcerned about this, but not so last night, as I was OUTSIDE IN IT with a DEAD BATTERY IN THE TRUCK.
Nephew got out of a warm bed and came to give me a jump, redeeming himself for a lot of past sins. Then I came home and tested electrical systems till I was blue, and finally put a charger on the truck. Turns out the battery won’t hold a charge, I think maybe I lost a plate or had a dead cell. Got a solid 12 volts but no amperage to speak of, certainly not enough to start the Exploder. So i think to myself, the battery can’t be but a year or two old, I need to get that replaced. I pull the receipt from the side of the battery, and discover the battery is in fact five years old, out of warranty.
Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a bananna.
So I go BACK out in the freezing pelting sleet to Wally World to grab myself a batry, then swap out the deader. At eleven I finaly have the new batry buttoned into the sploder and take it for a test drive.
It’s unusual as hell for a batry to die off so quickly, and so suddenly, but I’ll just assume it was waiting for the most miserable weather moment.
Ah, well. I’ll have my cables in the back.
I’m sure the battery didn’t figure it would get any a more exquisitely nasty weather picture to puke out in so it decided last night was optimal to bust on Og. Evil things those batterys.
You got your money’s worth out of that one if it was five years old.
Ughhh…the sleety/snowy stuff. One thing I don’t miss going out into since moving to Alabama. However I do miss the occasional snowball fight.
Oo! The battery in my Cherokee is about 5YO. Hmmm. Mebbe this is a sign from G*d?
SWMBO will no doubt chime in about the time I put a battery in my Corolla — backward — and had to have a whole new wiring harness put in.
Wonderful Nipponese engineering.
M
It’s the only time a battery will die… we’ll never have the luxury of them dying on a warm day, unless it’s a bike battery and the temp is 100 degrees as you have to run up and down the street trying to pop start it..
*throws snowball at dragonlady*
Og,
The battery in my Durango died suddenly. Like, with NO warning whatsoever. It was literally a week after we took our camper up north into the White Mountains in NH, too. It was exactly four years old.
Now, speaking of that Nipponese engineering, the Honda’s battery is six years old and recently checked out perfect – after the Durango died I had the Honda checked at its next service and the battery held a charge just like it should.
Go figure…
Batteries tend to die premature deaths in the hottest part of the summer here. Like it’s 150 degrees in the car and you just loaded it with a weeks worth of frozen foods, and now it won’t start.
It never happens in pleasant weather, only when you risk heat stroke just stepping outside. So yeah, batteries can be that way…
I’ve had four or five die over the years, and helped friends with a couple; all but one went like that. No warning, just blah. At work and at home. Nice weather and bad.
And it sucks.