What do you use for car battery/starter/alternator testing?

Searching through Summit Racing, they had about 20 or so choices.

Seems like these two would be the most versatile:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ATM-BVA-350/

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ATM-SB3/

Snap-on:
http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P65=&tool=all&item_ID=77740&group_ID=20178&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog
(http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P65=&tool=all&item_ID=77740&group_ID=20178&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog)

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P65=&tool=all&item_ID=80700&group_ID=20178&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog

Looking to do load testing, alternator output (amp), and testing for CCA. I maintain about 6 cars at the house and a neighbor (we share some tools) has about 4 cars/10 motorcycles. Rather than assuming every battery is dead cause it gives a little bit of trouble, I'd rather do a more thorough diagnostic.

May want to check craigslist and closeout auctions of auto repair facilities, a SUN VAT 28 or VAT 40 is considered a relic, but is more than capable of doing what you are wanting to do.
What little I have done with motorcycle (lawnmower, ATV, etc.) batteries, is when they seem bad, I don't spend much time messing with them. They usually ARE bad.
Otherwise, with the price of new batteries now, good investment on battery/charging/starting system tester!!

I have an old Stand up Snap On unit I purchased off eBay that has the carbon pile in it. I use it mainly for checking a starter or HO alts that I have built. IIRC it goes up to around 200-300 amps. It was about $30 off ebay, not many people interested in the older ones.

Battery/alt testers are handy if you're testing batts out of the vehicle. Usual scenario is guy walks into your auto parts store holding a battery. Most techs don't really use the combined testers very often. They're aimed towards untrained users and you're paying a lot of money for simplified controls (dummy proof)

Every vehicle comes conveniently equipped with it's own load tester - the starter. All you need is a DVOM to do 95% of testing. A DC amp clamp is also nice to have - you can check for things many battery/alt testers can't. It allows you to see the actual loads which a load tester can't do. For the price of one of those battery testers you could buy a Fluke 337 which is an AWESOME tool to have.

In case you can't tell, I'm a big fan of voltage drop testing.
YouTube - Starter Circuit Voltage Drop (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry68G0C2Fyc)

A quick e-bay check shows a VAT 40 -for local pickup- how convenient.

I use my DVOM for voltage and resistance checking, I also check for amp draw when the vehicle is off. I'll have to looking into the voltage drop testing.

try hf

Oh yeah, can't forget about them.