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So there's some good news and some bad news for me in the batteries department. First off, with a little coaxing, I was able to trade two dead battery cores for two seemingly fine tractor/trailer batteries at my local Napa Auto Parts. Now, while these are technically "starting" batteries, these are some heavy duty monsters, and probably function somewhat as a deep cycle given that some semi drivers MAY run accesories without running the engine (not likely, as I always see them idling, but who knows?). Anyway, they are physically identical dimensions to the Wal-Mart Maxx-29. They have the highest resting voltage of any of my batteries(except the Exide Orbital) at around 12.7-12.8v. These should be excellent batteries for my Toyota. Now as for the Geo, the one battery I was having trouble with is not long for this world: it gets down to 10.27v at the end of the commute. I am SO tempted to just break down and buy a new one to replace it, but I just can't get my mind around the idea that $58 for a new one is more than I paid for all six combined. So I will try to convert that battery to alum and see what happens. I'm nervous about that as I don't have a backup group 24 battery in case it fails. No guts, no glory I guess. Now on the positive side, the battery that would never take a full charge (well, the charger never turned off) was doing better than usual when I left it on all night Thursday night. So I went ahead and let it charge all evening yesterday, and then all night last night. When I got up this morning, the charger had turned off! So if the alum conversion works on the one battery, I should have a good solid pack for the foreseeable future....
PS: on a personal note, I am a full time college student again at Oklahoma State University after a 20 year absence with a goal of a Master's in Special Education. I survived my first week anyway....
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