I have to buy a new battery for my 03 400i, now I know as long as if fits in the spot it is ok and is a 12v , and I assume the more amps the better, but what is a good baseline for amps, what is classed as more amps?? Thanks.

 

Oh gosh, I have no idea for ATV's, but with a car I don't get anything less then 1000cc amps at 32 degrees

 

doober,

I just had to buy a new battery for my 2003 400I also. The 2005 Artic Cat Accessories catalog had 275 cold cranking amps available for $89.95 ($133.95 Canadian). Only problem I saw was it had the screw on filler caps. I wanted to stay away form them as my old battery boiled the water out. Just topped it off in September, dry in January. I figure it must have been due to running the winch and headlights while plowing in cold wheather.
Did alot of searching on the internet, and most offerings were 190 CCA. I'm not sure what factory stock is. They were priced in the $30.00 (US) range. Ended up with a unit from Interstate Battery, P/N YTX14AH-BS. Rated at 210 CCA. Paid in the $60.00 range for this unit. Had to trickle charge it for 10 hours and then "permanently" seal it. Seams to work OK. Cat fires real quick in the coldest wheather. Might be on to something here. Reading alot of posts about Cats being cold blooded. My old battery would turn the starter, but I had to use the pull rope to get it to fire. Might be the the old battery didn't have the do-dads to turn and fire the engine at the same time. Just my .02 worth.

 

Now that I have looked a bit, what are "amp hours" I am finding them anywhere from 4 amp hours to 20 amp hours?? But they say nothing about cold cranking amps?

 

If your battery is going dry, it's not from running it down. It's from overcharging, which is the only way to boil the water out of a battery. You need to have you regulator and rectifier checked.

 

An "Amp hour" is a 1 amp draw on the battery for an hour. Therefore a 20 amp hour battery has 5 times the power a 4 amp hour battery does. In the case of batteries, bigger is always better.