What's the best battery?

Mark m. · Sep 24, 2012

I need a new battery for my wheeler. It needs to be good for winching and all the usual accessories, lighting, stereo and so on.
I've been running a optima red top for years but it just died and I'm looking for the newest best thing.
Anyone tried the new litium batterys?

zukkev · Sep 24, 2012

Been running a blue top in the Sami for a few yrs now with good results...Just need to get an alternator in there that actually charges more than 10A! :haha:

skinny_pedal · Sep 24, 2012

Odyssey seem to be the new standard

Mark m. · Sep 24, 2012

skinny_pedal said:
Odyssey seem to be the new standard

Who sells them?

TreeClimber · Sep 24, 2012

Mark m. said:
Who sells them?

Sears. Diehard Gold Deep Cycle is a repackaged Odyssey

wayne_fj40 · Sep 24, 2012

I have run the blue top optima in my yota with radio all the accesorys been great just bought another one for my el camino. I like them.Seem to work great.

skinny_pedal · Sep 24, 2012

Mark m. said:
Who sells them?

4wp, believe John does. But id go with treeclimbers advise

hoss250 · Sep 24, 2012

Like TreeClimber said the Sears Diehard Gold Deep cycle. I think the warranty and the price are better than on the Odyssey. I have friends running them in boats with big stereos that sit without running and they work well. There is also a thread on Pirate about this and the possible quality control issues with Optima batteries lately.

Lucky Jeff · Sep 24, 2012

Can't find a "gold" deep cycle on the Sears site or diehard's, just the platinum. Have any specs on the gold?

TreeClimber · Sep 24, 2012

Lucky Jeff said:
Can't find a "gold" deep cycle on the Sears site or diehard's, just the platinum. Have any specs on the gold?

Gold, Platinum.... whatever. It's the 'Platinum", just forgot the proper name.

Lucky Jeff · Sep 24, 2012

TreeClimber said:
Gold, Platinum.... whatever. It's the 'Platinum", just forgot the proper name.

They had both in the regular batteries, just making sure.

unimogken · Sep 24, 2012

My batteries have been stolen a couple times from my truck so I've been getting blem batteries from Interstate off of 128th. They work awesome and I have been switching all of my vehicles over to Interstate.

In that other thread on that other board everyone seeks to be against the wet batteries. Before I put my last pair into my truck I flipped one upside down for a bit and only a couple drops came out. That seems acceptable to me inside of a battery box. You could put an absorbant pad in there if you wanted.

Another nice thing with the wet cells is that I have a solargizer hooked up to keep them topped off and I guess they don't work or are not suggested for the gel type of batteries.

"S"-box · Sep 24, 2012

zukkev said:
Been running a blue top in the Sami for a few yrs now with good results...Just need to get an alternator in there that actually charges more than 10A! :haha:

had a buddy that worked for interstate and he said if you run a marine deep cycle battery (blue top) and don't discharge it enuf after/during each use, it would actually decrease the life...eat itself up. I had a blue top die in @ 1.5yrs. I'm going on 8 yrs on one of my red tops.

try to recharge it, according to the dry cell chargeing directions. i have heard of several people "bringing back a red top" i guess it worked for me too?

zukkev · Sep 24, 2012

"S"-box said:
had a buddy that worked for interstate and he said if you run a marine deep cycle battery (blue top) and don't discharge it enuf after/during each use, it would actually decrease the life...eat itself up. I had a blue top die in @ 1.5yrs. I'm going on 8 yrs on one of my red tops.

try to recharge it, according to the dry cell chargeing directions. i have heard of several people "bringing back a red top" i guess it worked for me too?

My blue's been in the Sami for going on 6 yrs now...Only this yr did I have an issue with it, but I blame the lack of charging output of a stock Sami alt....

Mark m. · Sep 25, 2012

Thanks for the input. I think I'm going to try the Die Hard.

1 grumpy · Sep 25, 2012

I didn't like the diehard because of no side termanals only top post.

Poohbair · Sep 25, 2012

I have been thru 6 or 7 of the optima red tops in the past 5 years. The OLD redtop has been in my Cougar for a loooooooong time and still works great. The new optimas are **** at best. If they didn't keep getting replaced for free I wouldnt have any of the new ones.

RidgelineMotorsports · Sep 25, 2012

Costco seems to have pretty good batteries, but I have always have great luck with my optimas. I have used the red and yellow tops.

Lucky Jeff · Sep 25, 2012

kirkland signature series is the same as interstate. Interstate and optima are the same company. There's only a couple battery manufactures, just many different brands.