Battery Life

[Ram1500DS]

I have a two yr old battery, that I purchased from O'Reilly. They tested it and said it was 65% full of charge, but otherwise ok. The truck starts fine, but the initial voltage is in the 11.5 volt range, until the alternator kicks in. My issue is I installed a continuous power on adapter to my OBD port to power two Garmin Dash cams. The adapter shuts down the power if it detects any voltage less than 12 volts. I have tried a solar battery charger but it stops charging at 12 volts. Being retired I do not drive for any extended periods. So my question is do I just drive more? Do I get a more powerful battery charger or does the battery have a issue not holdind a charge above 12 volts? My truck sits outside and it is very hot in Texas and the heat kills these batteries. Thanks in advance

 

[ikreider]

batteries suck now a days. I paid top dollar for an optima years ago that went out in less than a year, same with an oreillys brand for my SRT charger, I paid over $200 and it didn’t even last a year. I miss my old interstate store that take old batteries as a trade in and you get a reman for $25-30 bucks…

 

[boogielander]

Noticed my battery read 11.8 over the weekend when I went camping and woke up early in the morning.
But once the solar panels are getting sunlight it charge back to over 12.5 and sometimes go up to 13.5.

Battery tester said battery's still good, but I'm thinking about swapping it out (but at the same time lazy to because I've been getting away with the solar and Renogy DC-DC w/ MPPT that trickle charges the starter).



The most lazy solution is to change battery or put it on a battery tender.
Or, to get to the bottom of this, unplug the Garmins first and see what happens.
Then, get a better solar charger that can push over 12v. Your solar charger stop charging when battery is at 12v is definitely not a battery issue, but a charger issue (battery doesn't have a BMS in it to tell itself to stop accepting charge at 12v)