This is a battery load tester. It is an old-school device for determining the condition of the battery and also provides some info about the alternator & starter. Simply connecting a voltmeter across a car battery and reading 12.6 volts, while the engine is not running, tells you almost nothing. It is the dynamic load of the starter motor drawing power across the battery that informs you if the battery is going south. I paid $ 25 for the Load-Tester. I do not use it on the RC as it is too new, but I own 3 other vehicles (including a 2003 4runner) with 266k miles on her. Most all batteries are made the same and will last between 4 to 6 years. I just replace batteries at 5yrs to save myself from distress calls from my wife or kids. But the load tester helps pin-point the issue if the problem is sooner then I expect.

Very informative, will be buying one 10 years from now when/if I ever hit 100k in the RC.

Down here in central Texas....I would be happy to get 4-6 years out of a battery. I usually get 3-4 years out of them. However, I do put 30-35K miles a year on my cars

I had this for a few years and I highly recommend it. It can tell you if your battery, starter, or alternator is going bad.

https://www.griotsgarage.com/product...fType=&from=fn

Thanks for the info.