2002 Grand Caravan battery replacement

The factory battery (which died suddenly yesterday) in my 2002 Grand Caravan has an insulating wrap around it that looks like bubble wrap. What is that and does that get disposed of with the old battery or removed from the old battery and put on the new battery?

 

Remove from the old battery, clean and place over new battery.
Clean the connections (use baking soda if its white crust).
After securing the battery start vehicle and connect a voltmeter to ensure
charging output (about 14.2 V)

 

Make sure you get an electrical system check to ensure there is not a
low level drain on the system.

When I purchased my 2002 GC, it had sat on the lot for six months, and
it would not start, so they replaced the battery thinking that the
battery was toast. Fair guess. WRONG, but fair guess!

They had to put it into their body shop to repaint the bumpers and a
quickie touch up before we took delivery. It was in the body shop for
almost a week. When they went to drive it out of the shop - dead!
NOTHING.

Back to the drawing board.

Turns out there the was a switch somewhere that had shorted closed and
was placing a drain on the battery. After ANOTHER new battery, and the
switch replaced, all is well! (I love it when problems are actually
fixed!)

But you want to make sure that your electrical system is not only
charging properly, but also is not putting undue load on the battery
when the engine is not running.

And what the heck is it with your posts???? Why is your line so
stinking long? Does your news poster not believe in limited line
lengths, or at least "word wrap"???