What have you found to be the best battery buy for a 2002 GEM 825?
Depends on the quality and type you want to spend your money on. A big factor to consider is how long you intend to keep your vehicle. If you are going to keep your car for a long time and want minimum maintenance go Gel, Many people like AGM’s These are 105 hour batteries.If you don’t mind adding water every once in awhile Trojan T1275 are the ultimate in a flooded battery and will give you the most range. They are 150 hour batteries.
I trade often and have had excellent service from size 31MDC (marine Deep Cycle) batteries from East Pen. They have a life of 3+years and are reasonably priced. East Pen Private labels these for a lot of vendors.
I bought my last set from Oreiley’s for $620 out the door. Sams latest price was $94.80 each, (Duracell 29HM) These are a size 31 flooded unit. These are 105 hour batteries,
I agree with the statements above.
But with that said, Gell and Agm are both sealed batterys (no need to add water) ever. So if your forgetful and you forget to add water on a wet cell battery you can cook a battery or batterys real quick.
I personally like not having to ever check the water with my Gells and peace of mind my car is plugged in and in trickle mode and I’m not damaging anything by possible having low water levels
One thing I don’t see people talking about is Re-Sale. I often buy and fix up and re sell gems. If a Gem has name brand Deka or Trojan batterys I’m way more likely to give more money for said car. And when people are buying GEM they always say “does it have then Trojan or Deka batterys” so it could help you sell your car faster or for more money. Last I checked a good set of Trojan 30-Hxs batterys sells for around $1200. A set of Deka Gells is a few hundred more. So if you can get the no name brands for $900 we are only talking about a $500 up charge for the premium batterys and IMO that’s worth the extra $500
i do the same as Grant. However my market is different. Sales in my area are in the $2500 to $3000 area and all the customers want to see is a receipt for batteries less than a year old. A $620 set of Duracells satisfy’s most of my customers. Actually for flat areas they work very well.
Here people gladly pay $5500-$5000 for a gem in great condition with a New Set of batterys. Cheaper no name battery cars are going for much less. So In my opinion it’s worth it for Resale alone to pony up the extra $500 for the name brand batterys.
But I totally understand Rodney’s point. Most people would be impressed with a brand new set of interstate batterys over a 1-2 year set of Trojans. In my case I would take the 2 year old Trojans over a New set of no names all day long.
I LIKE your market!!!