[Dam Worker]

Well after fighting hard starting issues with the old 7.3 for a couple of years I accidentally figured out the problem. Started almost two years ago when one of my Kirkland batteries took a dump after five or six dependable years. I went to Costco to replace it and found out they were in the process of switching out of their Kirkland brand and going to Interstates standard batteries. I replaced the bad battery with a new one and that is when my problems started. The batteries struggled to start my truck so I went and got another new Interstate battery to replace the last old Kirkland a few weeks later. I Installed it and still had issues with the new set of batteries not really wanting to turn the engine over like they should have. Now remember I don't really drive my TV very often so I put up with it and carried a battery pack with me just in case. Truck would not start last night until I had slow charged the batteries for a couple of hours. Today in preparation for the upcoming camping season I went and had the batteries tested. Sure enough I had one good battery and one bad battery. I had complained about the Interstate batteries ever since I installed them. The new set I installed today works great. What I figure is that the first replacement battery was DOA when I installed it a couple of years ago. That can and does happen every so often. I am finally happy with the Interstate batteries now that I have two good ones. I was going to go to Trojan batteries as I had great luck with them but now I don't need to.
Sorry about the long post but if you're having issues with new batteries remember you can get a dud even when they are brand new. Oh yeah I do replace both batteries when one goes bad but sometimes it is a few weeks to a month before it happens.

Tom Marty