Battery Life

I have a 99 Ranger 4.0L with over 96K miles. I'm still using the original battery (Motorcraft) and have had no problem thus far. It cranks the engine good and the indicator is still green. Other than keeping the battery terminals clean and tight, the only other thing I do is I periodically apply trickle charge overnight. Anyone having similar experience? Nothing special about the battery, the standard group 24 with 550 CCA.

I replace my 94 ranger battery before its 8th winter just because I was afraid it would strand me somewhere in the cold. This was preventative maintenance more than anything else it was still working well. I believe ford use a really good battery, at least in the Ranger line

What are you worried about then? You'll get a warning before your battery dies, slow cranking etc.. Lead acid batterys will usually last for a very long time as long as they are not killed dead, you kill a lead acid ONCE and there screwed.

I'm not worried about my battery. I've got an analogue voltmeter (not the idiot gauge) that I use to monitor performance of the battery. My point is that many batteries do not go beyond its warranty life, normally between 72-96 months. I work part time in an auto parts store and we do a lot of business selling batteries which don't last its cycle life. I believe the main cause is frequent short drives which don't allow the batteries to get fully charge. By the way I worked with propulsion lead-acid batteries while I was in the submarine force. Each cell weighed 2000 lbs. and we have 250 cells. However, we do proper maintenance (test discharge, equalizer charge, etc.)on them to last its life cycle

I have a Duralast Gold Battery in my '90 Ranger that was bought new in late 1998 & have never had a problem with it. I live in a rural area so the trucks driven 99% of the time on the Highway & nothing is a short trip around here. I swear the Battery is going to outlast the truck.