Sorting through Advice and Recommendations

[Less is More]

I managed to lose the red key to my battery power interrupt mounted on the tongue of my trailer. Without getting into specifics it was one of those self-inflicted issues that seem to go with trailer ownership.

I looked to this forum for advice and sure enough someone recommended and actually provided a link to Amazon for a pair of Cleena keys. They looked just like the one I lost. However, among the other comments someone noted that rather than finding a matching key it wasn't much more expensive to buy a complete battery disconnect with key. Not wanting to do a lot of work, I opted for just buying the keys for about $8. When they arrived I ran out and tried one only to find that it was just slightly too large. Should have followed the other guy's advice.

So now I had to buy a new battery disconnect. I starting looking for an exact match for my old one so that the drilled holes would line up. The one on the trailer is unbranded. (Seems as if FR buys a pallet of them from China and when they run out FR buys another pallet from a different China vendor.) I could only find one with 4 holes. However, just before I ordered I discovered that the terminals were a different diameter from my old one. So it was back to Amazon to find a close match to my old one with the correct diameter terminals.

That turned out to be a challenge as well because many suppliers don't provide that important piece of information. So I ask the "Amazon community." Interestingly, for the same product I got !/4", 5/16", and 3/8". One commentor indicated that he did not own the product but believed they were all 3/8" and another stated he never measured it. Just for the record, none of those sizes is correct because in China they use metric not inches and the size I needed was 10 mm (about 3/8").

So what I did was drink 4 beers and pick one that had 10 mm terminals. Price was about $9. When it came 2 days later I tried the red key in my old battery disconnect just for kicks. It was a perfect fit.

So what I conclude is that internet information can be useful if you know enough to separate the good information from the misleading information and Amazon reviews and answers and virtually useless and some times even bizarre.

[larry2c]

It always cracks me up when somebody on Amazon answers a perspective buyers question by starting off with - "I don't own this product but..." I guess some folks just have a lot of time on their hands and want to virtually talk to somebody

Glad your 3 beer solution worked out (one of my favorite ways to decide things!)

[SailorSam20500]

Originally Posted by larry2c

It always cracks me up ..." I guess some folks just have a lot of time on their hands and want to virtually talk to somebody

Glad your 3 beer solution worked out (one of my favorite ways to decide things!)

Hey, that answer fits a lot of folks on THIS forum!!

(BTW, quit talking about me..)




To the OP, that 3 beer solution is USUALLY a pretty good one!

[Bama Rambler]

You have to learn to read between, over, around & through most Amazon answers.
You'll usually get a good one, but the real task is figuring out which one that is!