Warning, long boring post on a largely uninteresting subject

Clicking the pics will make them bigger, but unfortunately it doesn't make them any better.

Warthogs in the sunset

I have been having some truck battery problems for the last couple of months. The batteries were Walmart's top-of-the-line batteries, and they were only three years old, but I noticed that if my truck sat without running for three or four days, the batteries would be weak, and the batteries wouldn't turn the engine over very fast.

So I put a multi-meter on the batteries in the morning before I cranked up and found that both batteries, instead of having a voltage of 12.4 or 12.5 that would be normal after sitting for a while, the batteries were down to 12.1. And every day the truck would sit, they would lose another 10th. There were no phantom loads that the truck hadn't always had. I disconnect the bronco from the truck whenever I park for the night. And the alternator was putting out 14.4 volts with the engine idling, which its supposed to. So it looks like I had one or more batteries going bad.

The grits finally hit the fan the other day when I went out to start the truck here at the Fairgrounds boondocking area, and the batteries were dead. At 7 1/2 volts, I would call that beyond dead...... speaking of "Beyond Dead" I think that would make a good horror movie. It could star yours truly showing what I look like when I wake up in the morning.

Buying new batteries required that I get the truck started, so I dug out my seldom-used vintage Walmart jumper cables and checked my supply of extra batteries.

I didn't want to use the bronco's house batteries because there both 6 volts, and I would have to wire them in series to jump the truck; that seemed like a hassle. But if you recall, I brought all four of the Arctic Fox's lithium iron batteries with me, and I used one of them to jump the truck because they're all 12 volts.

The problem is that lithium iron is not designed to be used as a starting battery. Instead, their forte is slow, long-lasting power like deep cycle batteries. But you have to play the hand you're dealt, and I've got a handful of lithium iron batteries at the moment.

I tried using my old Walmart jumper cables, but that was a no-go. I finally realized that my junky Walmart cables were too small in size to pass the amount of amperage that I needed to get the truck going. So I got on Amazon and ordered some top-of-the-line jumper cables, and they arrived the next day before lunch.... How nice to be in a town that has a Walmart warehouse five or six miles away. I hooked the new cables to the BattleBorn lithium iron battery, and the truck fired right up.

The Walmart near me didn't have an automotive department with a decent selection of batteries, so I went down the street to O'Reilly's, bought a couple of batteries from them, and now my problems are over.... At least my battery problems are over.

Theboondork

My old Walmart batteries, waiting to be taken back to O'Reilly's auto parts to get my core charge refunded.

Some of these girls are going over some really high jumps now.

Fairgrounds rose before they trimmed the bushes

Sandhill Cranes heading for the feeding grounds.

I don't think this girl is exhibiting the fearlessness required to be a champion jumper.