Starting to look at permanent batteries for the truck... Optimas are cute and spill proof but what are the pros and cons over regular lead acid car batteries... cost is definitely a con..

go

john

 

Red top Optima in my wife's Expedition is every bit of 10 years old, hasn't missed a lick...


edit......knock on wood..

 

My original Optima in my '54 was approaching 7 years old. Local parts store going out of business and marked everything 50% off. Brand new Optima $127 out the door = win/win. My battery mounts on the frame under the truck so a ventless, maintenance free battery was a must for me. I'm not pushing Optima, it's just worked well for me. Good Luck, Steve

 

Is the Optima battery an Absorbant Glass Mat (AGM) battery? If so you have to be careful when charging. My son had a Mazda Miata convertable he just sold. He didn't drive it much this summer due to the tropical rainforest type rain we had this summer. The battery went down for lack of use. It was a year and a half old. He used my charger but he said it didn't charge it. I took it back to the place he bought it at. They knew immediately what happened.

They said you cant use a generic charger for an AGM battery. I never knew that, nor heard of AGM batteries. The sides were sucked in. They tried to charge it overnight but couldn't. They did sell us a new one at a discount. And then my son sold the Miata.

 

 

 

 

Hey Dennis, shouldn't you have the cowl vent closed when racing for better airflow? Or doesn't it matter for a non-streamlined block of metal like our trucks? I remember when I was a young kid with my brother in his 68 Camaro with a 427 and some guy foolishly wanted to run him. We rolled up the windows and closed the vents.

 

You could be right, Abe. Close the cowl vent and maybe put a Moon disc on the spare tire, you could pick up a tenth.

 

 

Mine is a PC925 and they are $187.99 from Amazon. Check out Odyssey: ODYSSEY Battery - Official Manufacturer's Site

 

I'm having trouble with mfg websites wanting to know what your vehicle is to size you a battery.. just tell me what a group 34/78 will cost !!! without clicking on 27 pictures to find what you want... not a single one list one for a 53 ford f-100 with a 7.5 engine ... go figure


also having a hard time finding one with dual terminals (top and front) with the positive on the right side.

john

 

We're hijacking this thread a bit but why would the drag strip care if your windows are up? Safety?

 

 

AGM batteries don't really require a special charger. We deal with a couple hundred of them on emergency vehicles The worst thing that can happen to them is to become too discharged. There seems to be no way to ever get them to recover and be reliable. Doesn't matter what color or brand, they all do the same thing in our experience. The ambulance guys want them but we really don't see any real benefit over the history of when they all ran regular batteries. If you have a location that requires being spill proof that's one thing, otherwise I'd save the money.