Today I had to buy two new batteries for my tow vehicle. OUCH!!! $300.00, but that's life with cars, which lead me to another one of my substandard thoughts. Did your dad, uncle, gramps or some other old man call them "Bat Trees"?
Yep, hear it all the time, seems the most common pronunciation round these parts. It's wrong, but, you know... I see them too. ^That is a tree with resting fruit bats.
Groucho turned me on to a battery rebuilding place and I haven't bought a new battery in many years. My ot Silverado must have hung out on the dealer lot for about a year before I got it. I'm sure the battery was simply jumped to get the truck started. Anyway..a year later the battery failed and the warranty doesn't cover that. Went to the rebuilt battery place and my near new truck uses that battery still...probably put 100k miles on it. The rebuilt battery was $35. I can buy 3 or 4 rebuilt ones for the price of a new one... but you know what? They don't fail any quicker than a new battery. On the odd occasion that I've had a problem...the place just hands me a replacement free anyway since ive been buying there so long..
My wife grew up in McGregor Carl, She says "bat tree" is about right for that hood. I can relate to the price of new ones. I had to pay 200 for one for my wife's ot daily a few months ago. Now I need one for the winch for my trailer . I used to think a buddy of mine was cheap because he swapped one battery around between about 4 rigs that he only used for specific jobs around his farm. Now I can see that he may have been a lot more practical than cheap.
If he had a bat tree for each machine that was only occasionally used, he'd have to be charging them up now and again or they'd get ruined. Probably more hassle than just swapping them around. I usually have the problem of the posts in the wrong orientation to fit the other old cars in the fleet.