SXS battery upgrade options

My 2015 Ranger 570 is due for a battery replacement. I believe the one in there is the one from the factory, so it was a good run. However, since I primarily use it for plowing my driveway and pond, the battery definitely gets run down quite a bit from all the winch use when plowing. It takes me a good hour and a half to plow both my driveway and pond and the winch being used a lot. There is even more battery draw plowing at night when the headlights are on. I always use a battery tender trickle charger when not in use.

I would like to upgrade to a bigger battery capacity and can’t figure out which way I want to go and have come up with a few different options based on my research.

1) replace with the same type/size of battery that came stock on the machine. Simple and cheapest but I’m not adding any storage/capacity to combat the battery draw down from the heavy winch use.

2) replace with 2 of the same size batteries wired in parallel. More expensive but gives me twice the capacity and amp hours, but will this cause any issues with my alternator or other electrical components? I have plenty of room for the extra battery, just need to build a second battery tray for it. I’d probably weld a steel frame together and weld that to the frame next to the existing battery tray

3) replace with the battery size that comes stock on the new full-size rangers. They are much bigger batteries (like twice the size), more expensive but also have a larger capacity. I don’t see any negatives to this route other than having to build a new battery tray which isn’t a huge deal, I have plenty of room for it.

4) replace with a car sized battery. I’ve heard some people doing this. Like I said in #2 & 3 above, I have plenty of room to build the battery tray, but would this cause any issues with my alternator being undersized or other electrical components?

I am leaning towards option #3 right now but am strongly considering option #2 or #4. Anyone have any insight to this? Thank you in advance.

I’m on numerous Facebook Sxs groups and most people will just use one bigger battery if the stock location has enough room to hold it. A lot of people use optimas. There not cheap but for your usage it might be the way to go or a bigger battery like the new rangers use. I would go with one bigger battery

If you go with two of the same size I would use a isolator instead of running them parallel. That is what I am switching to in my pioneer.

If you are going to use more or larger batteries you would be smart to make sure you are getting more cranking amps AND capacity.

Capacity is good for long term draw but Amps get are what is needed when it gets colder to start the machine. When temp drops so do the amps available, you can have all the capacity but if the amps are low it wont start to get you home from a trip. If you are going to do the work make sure you get the full benefit.

I just upgraded my sxs to a Odyssey PC1200 battery which I purchased from Autozone. It was expensive but it came with a 4 year replacement warranty which I will probably use down the road. I had to modify/cut some plastic to make it fit but so be it. The stock battery in my CanAm would drain down while plowing snow with both the front and rear LED’s on. It doesn’t do it anymore and I feel better in the cold temps if I’m on a lake for a few days.

If your battery isn’t keeping up with snow plowing use of the winch, I would first check and see if your stator on the machine is even working. And if it is, is it charging to spec?

With the engine running and being driven so RPMs are well above idle, there should be no problem generating enough power for headlights and winch use.

I would check to see if there is a higher output alternator/charging system as with a larger battery capacity you would still need to use your trickle charger. I was lucky if I got 2 years out of a battery on my Mule 610 and I plowed with it and had a trickle charger plugged in when I wasn’t using it. I can’t find what the alternator output was for that SXS but the Mule SX that replaced it only has 17 amp output and my Pro MX has 35 amp alternator and I haven’t needed a trickle charger with it

dbright wrote:

If you go with two of the same size I would use a isolator instead of running them parallel. That is what I am switching to in my pioneer.

That’s a good idea I didn’t think about. Why do you go the isolator route rather than wiring them in parallel?

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

If your battery isn’t keeping up with snow plowing use of the winch, I would first check and see if your stator on the machine is even working. And if it is, is it charging to spec?

2-3 years ago I didn’t have any problems. Last winter I started noticing gradually less capacity and it’s even worse this winter. It wasn’t an issue this fall grouse hunting when temps were warmer.

I think the battery is just at the end of its life, especially since it seems to be more of a problem the colder it is. 7 years is a pretty good run on a little battery like this if you me. Good call tho, I will check the stator and alternator when I swap out a new battery.

Check out Antigravity Lithium batteries.

Typically a stock magneto output is in-between 500-850 watts depending on the machine. This only equates to around 40-70 amps total output. But remember that is also rated at a higher rpm (4000) on most machines. There are a lot of load factors that play into this and if you have a higher amp load request a weak or smaller battery isn’t going to cut it and will draw down.

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

I will check the stator and alternator when I swap out a new battery.

There is no alternator, it’s a stator.

IME, the voltage regulator is more likely to be the issue than the stator. Either way, simply test the battery with the machine off and get a voltage reading, then start the machine and take another reading both at idle and at 3000 RPM. Needless to say you should have higher voltage at the battery with the machine running and higher yet with the machine at 3000 RPM.

If there is no voltage rise or if there is a drop, there is a process for testing both the stator and the voltage regulator separately to figure out which has gone bad.

The winch draws a lot of juice. If you raise and lower your plow as much as I do the charging system can not keep up to the amps being drawn. Based on this, upgrading to a larger capacity battery will still require the battery tender to bring the battery back up to full charge.

Thanks grouse, I’ll check it out.

OG Net_Man wrote:

The winch draws a lot of juice. If you raise and lower your plow as much as I do the charging system can not keep up to the amps being drawn. Based on this, upgrading to a larger capacity battery will still require the battery tender to bring the battery back up to full charge.

I’d guess I winch up/down somewhere around 50-60 times when plowing my driveway and pond, and most of my plowing is done at lower rpm’s. I think I’m in the same boat as you.

I have a large driveway and plow with my 700 Griz. The battery I have in has been there for 8 years.
I keep a tender on it all year long. That’s my secret.