Grand Mesa
Senior Member
As I've been told by a battery guru- the hot weather is the culprit that does the damage to the battery. However it shows up in the cold/winter weather due to the increased demand for amps on cold start. I thought this was a line of houie, but I had a Buick Riviera that had the battery under the backseat, not in the hot ass engine compartment. That OEM battery lasted right at 6 years!! The best I have gotten with batteries under the hood is 2-3-1/2 at best. So based on this experience I figure he was right.
The batteries in the HDs (not sure about the Hemis) have a "blanket" around them to try to insulate them from some of the under hood heat. I'd bet good money theyre trying to make em last to 36,001 miles or 37 months to avoid having to replace them under warranty!
Be Safe out there folks!!
The field mice here ate away my battery "blanket" on my 2016 immediately after I purchased it. They haven't eaten anything else under the hood since. I've got 76,000 miles on my 2016 OEM. It gets around 100 degrees in the summer with a 45 to 50 degree Fahrenheit change in daily temperature, then in mid-September it quickly changes to freezing temperatures followed by far below the "operation not recommended" battery recommendations.
Some stupidly low arctic cold mornings of below minus 20 to 40 sometimes must be the reason for the preservation of my RV, marine, and vehicle batteries. Never had any last less than 5 years under the hood, except for some Optima AGMs.