What did you do TO your Gladiator today? [ADMIN WARNING: NO POLITICS, NO GUN TALK]

[Stan H]

I know people love the cheap hand-held units but I prefer a real load test as I was taught to use.
So you either find an antique Sun unit or get something similar to this -

https://www.amazon.com/Clore-Automotive-1874-Carbon-Battery/dp/B014T7HL3I

My antique stuff -

I saved that item thank you.

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[Hootbro]

Okay after it sat for 5 hrs. I took both terminals off and miltimeter reading repeatedly 12.86 and 12.87. Test 4 times. @Hootbro is that Good ? This is the Main battery .

As mentioned that seems fine.

Carbon pile testers are a mixed bag and really designed around old school flooded cells. I have switched over to using conductance style testers. Just a bit more dialed in for modern AGM batteries.

I use a TopDon one that is inexpensive but there is other conductance testers that are more feature oriented for not much more.

https://www.amazon.com/TT-TOPDON-AB101-Automotive-System，Charging/dp/B07DDDDSK9

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Carbon pile testers are a mixed bag and really designed around old school flooded cells.

A lot of technicians might not agree with you. The modern versions are fine, and a good tech can easily use a carbon pile tester on AGM.

 

[Hootbro]

A lot of technicians might not agree with you. The modern versions are fine, and a good tech can easily use a carbon pile tester on AGM.

A lot do and I am ok with that. Both have their place.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

A lot do and I am ok with that. Both have their place.

My beef with the smaller units used in parts stores and so on - they are too often wrong or give "results" that are of no help.
If I had a hand-held unit, non-carbon pile, I'd opt for top of the line. I've found not to trust the results of those used by the stores around here. Since they are supposed to be idiot-proof, I can't blame the person using it as I usually would!

 

[Hootbro]

My beef with the smaller units used in parts stores and so on - they are too often wrong or give "results" that are of no help.
If I had a hand-held unit, non-carbon pile, I'd opt for top of the line. I've found not to trust the results of those used by the stores around here. Since they are supposed to be idiot-proof, I can't blame the person using it as I usually would!

Neither style is perfect but both need to be in trained hands to know what they are looking at. Most novice users misunderstand the analog needle range scaling on a carbon pile and most problems with the conductance type testers is when off a fresh charge, the do not take the surface charge off before testing.

 

[RudeJeepin]

So for the second time I had to replace the Auxiliary Battery, the one I replaced was a dura last 200cca . Well this time I got a Napa 200cca in a group 14 . So hopefully this one last at least 3 yrs. Got up at 530 and went out about 630 had it done by 8am disconnected the negative and also the IBS (3rd time this week ) as @Minty JL says a post is lame without pics. The next to last pic after I started and the A signal is gone.
One thing of note so I decided when I pulled the old one see what it did with the charger and the Son of a Gun was charged in that time it took to replace the Aux. Last pic is me charging the Aux all night long .

Looking at all the pictures, makes me love my diesel even more. So much easier of a job to swap batteries on it.

 

[DanW]

My procedure is now refined. I have a big Odyssey battery in my JL and whatever brand aux battery I find cheapest, because I have had 3 different brands and they all look like they came out of the same factory...that includes the OEM. The Odyssey is a pure lead high performance AGM and should last up to 10 years. It is 5 years old now. So when the aux fails, the dash does some wonky things. I just get a new one, set aside about 45 min and dig in there and replace it.

So why not bypass or disable the aux? Because I have the lifetime Mopar warranty. I have to keep it stock, so I deal with it. On the Gladiator, the aux failed at 35k miles, right when I bought the truck. So they covered it under the 3/36 warranty and replaced both, even though the main battery was still good. That is their procedure. So just like the JL, the OEM aux lasted 3 years. That seems to be their lifespan. I´ll put an Odyssey in the Gladiator when the replacement OEM battery gets just past the 3 year mark, which is in November of 2026. I really want to eliminate the aux at that point and not even have the dead weight of it in there.

Btw, if you get a pure lead high performance AGM like an Odyssey or Optima, get an Optima or similar charger for it. LOTS of guys think their Optimas failed when the reality is they were drained down to a level that their standard chargers could not recover them. They actually just needed the proper charger to bring them back.

So if anyone has an Optima in the Central Indiana area that has failed, bring it to me and I will take it off your hands! LOL. Just kidding. You can bring it to me or find someone with an Optima charger or one like it designed for these batteries and we can see if we can recover it. I have the little 400 charger and it is the best battery charger I ever had. Not fast, but it is really good.

 

[DanW]

My procedure is now refined. I have a big Odyssey battery in my JL and whatever brand aux battery I find cheapest, because I have had 3 different brands and they all look like they came out of the same factory...that includes the OEM. The Odyssey is a pure lead high performance AGM and should last up to 10 years. It is 5 years old now. So when the aux fails, the dash does some wonky things. I just get a new one, set aside about 45 min and dig in there and replace it.

So why not bypass or disable the aux? Because I have the lifetime Mopar warranty. I have to keep it stock, so I deal with it. On the Gladiator, the aux failed at 35k miles, right when I bought the truck. So they covered it under the 3/36 warranty and replaced both, even though the main battery was still good. That is their procedure. So just like the JL, the OEM aux lasted 3 years. That seems to be their lifespan. I´ll put an Odyssey in the Gladiator when the replacement OEM battery gets just past the 3 year mark, which is in November of 2026. I really want to eliminate the aux at that point and not even have the dead weight of it in there.

Btw, if you get a pure lead high performance AGM like an Odyssey or Optima, get an Optima or similar charger for it. LOTS of guys think their Optimas failed when the reality is they were drained down to a level that their standard chargers could not recover them. They actually just needed the proper charger to bring them back.

So if anyone has an Optima in the Central Indiana area that has failed, bring it to me and I will take it off your hands! LOL. Just kidding. You can bring it to me or find someone with an Optima charger or one like it designed for these batteries and we can see if we can recover it. I have the little 400 charger and it is the best battery charger I ever had. Not fast, but it is really good. I´d bet their bigger one is even better. But it ain´t cheap.

 

[wcberry]

Installed the Mopar Aux Switch Kit. Didn't de-pin the connector but just spliced into the orange wire and continued on. I did try for a bit to get the pin out but was struggling with the de-pin kit I had so just went for the easier method and not worry about the pin. Used the Tazer to program and done.

 

[SaiintNick]

Finally couldn’t deal with the drivers door popping anymore. If this ever happens to you just remove the black bolt and then shut the door. The arm will pop twice and go back into the door. It’s reversible. I actually like this better. It’s old school and allows the door to open slightly more. I might just do it to all the doors.

 

[drewcnit]

Took it down to the truck stop and weighed it... Been curious since a discussion at SMORR last month, so as I was loading up to go to the Jeep Invasion I loaded it as I would for a wheeling trip and took it down to the scale -

All my gear plus myself (minus a cooler, go bag) -

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Took it down to the truck stop and weighed it... Been curious since a discussion at SMORR last month, so as I was loading up to go to the Jeep Invasion I loaded it as I would for a wheeling trip and took it down to the scale -

All my gear plus myself (minus a cooler, go bag) -

I think the hood says it all...............

 

[RS3]

Picked up a winch for mine today.

 

[Hootbro]

Installed the Mopar Aux Switch Kit. Didn't de-pin the connector but just spliced into the orange wire and continued on. I did try for a bit to get the pin out but was struggling with the de-pin kit I had so just went for the easier method and not worry about the pin. Used the Tazer to program and done.

Firewall pass through looks good. I have done this one before on one of my other JT's and it was bit of a pain. If I was to do it again, probably would just do a bypass splice also on the kick panel connector wire.

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