Battery Cranking Power for 73 Sportsman


F

fwood

Junior Member
Hello!

We are definitely new to all of this, and our Sportsman we bought needs lots of work, but I am going to enjoy the adventure. What a neat toy to have..and I will never be homeless..lol

To start off with, we bought it with a dead battery and can't really tell if has an alternator issue, but regardless, we want to buy a battery that has plenty of cranking power to start our journey at fixing whatever ails it. We don't know how much of a battery it really needs, and since we bought it from someone that wasn't an RVer either, I wouldn't necessarily want to follow their guidelines.

So, the question is. How much of a battery is enough for a 1973 Sportsman 8300 1Ton Motor Home?

Thanks for your help.
 
akjimny

akjimny

Senior Member
Hi Fwood and welcome to the RVUSA Forum. Your motorhome should have a 360 engine. If you take this info to any auto parts store, they should be able to look up all the battery options for you. In my opinion I would go with the biggest battery that will fit in the battery compartment. Jimmy rule #1 - If some are good, more are better. So bigger battery is better.:):)

Welcome - and post back if you have more questions.
 
F

fwood

Junior Member
Thanks you for your reply. We actually went to the local junk yard and got the biggest we could find and would fit. We figured we would start off that way to see what else was going on and if we killed the newer battery it wouldn't be such a loss.

It fired right up and ran three times better than when we jumped that bad battery, but, of course, the choke seems stuck open :) So it runs really too good at the moment. Oh well, some carb cleaner first and see if that works and then our new big project will be the exhaust.
 
akjimny

akjimny

Senior Member
Sounds like you have a handle on it. Motorhomes, it seems, are always a "work in progress." Enjoy your new toy and post back if we can be of more help.:):)
 
P

Philip.Saran

Junior Member
It does not matter weither you have a 360 or a 440 in your MH, a battery with about
750 to 850 cranking amps would be a good starting point. Price them at Costco, Walmart,
Sear's, Autozone etc.
 
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