Here's the problem, i have a dual battery setup, it's a 6.9 with dual energizer batt's pulling out 850 CCA's apeice. i took it to autozone and the machine said it was good however they then put it in the charger and said that's it's bad. so my question is. now that i'm pretty sure that it is in fact bad (i can hear gases leaking) i want to know which type of batteries to buy. I was looking at the Optima Red Top's. but then i started to think what may have drained my battery to the point of it being bad.
the load i run is. One CB radio, two 130watt offroad lights, two 55 watt offroad lights, my stock radio, aftermarket gauges, regular driving lights, heater and of course the normal starting up power. I never have run everything all at once. my alternator is the stock one. so i figure it's pulling out from 65amps to 85 amps. so the question is should i buy the Optima Blue tops or the reds? or mix them? i'm pretty clueless about this right now. (btw i'm also trying to get my hands on a 100 amp alt the one at napa isn't the right one because i think that also might be something to do with it, but i don't know cause after i got a jump-batteries being dead- my truck just ran wonderful. so again which ones you think?

 

Ditto did they separate the the batteries before they checked them or hooked up the charger? You can have one bad battery and one good if you dont separate them you'll get weird readings from your test equipment. Although it's best to replace both batteries as a pair it's rare to have both batteries go bad at the same time.
dont know much about the Optimas other than they cost to much. I dont see any gain in mixing battery types. Get two of the same with about 1000 cranking amps and you should be good to go.

Pat

 

thanks pat,
they did seperate and try to charge the batteries, both failed the charging route but both came up good on the actual test machine... strange if you asked me. I was thinking about getting two Blue Top D31m Optimas. and i was thinking the same thing about it's strange that both just messed up at the same time.....

 

I am running dual Interstates (900 CCA's each) on mine. There is more than enough cranking power for the engine and plenty of reserve for accessories.
I have a CB, scanner, company radio, aftermarket CD player with amp, and some other higher load accessories (lights, pumps)

With the accessories you have, I don't think the blue tops are necessary. I think you would be better off spending your money to upgrade the alternator to a 100- 130 amp unit.

The Optima red tops are linear, which basically means that they hold at 12V while cranking longer than a standard battery.

Jason

 

thanks guys, the thing came alive and now starts wonderfully, i decided to to change to one blue top D31M deep cycle. and i found that it was mostly due to the wire corrosion (it was under insutlation). i was checking other posts and i saw that dave had the same problem, so i changed the whole postive setup, and i found that napa had one. (having a friend at napa has many many advantages). i bought it, and now it starts so much easier then before. I'm going to go ahead and replace the other battery aswell, i i'll take Crawler's advice to replace the alterator but they can only rebuilt my old one to a high voltage and ampage. they'll do that for 160 bucks, for a 200 amp. is that good? this is with everything. i didn't want to do it cause, i keep hearing horror stories of these parts not working after one or two years, my alternator works great... what you guys think?

 

Just so you know, hearing gas escape from a battery is normal, they give off hydrogen gas when charging. Completely draining a non-deep cycle battery will damage it. I'm running dual 880 cca's from sears, Eliminators I think and they're working fine. And I would definitely upgrade your alternator so it's supplying the acc's instead of your batteries.

 

I think there is a different alternator used for the ambulance and bus. You might be able to find one of them, but it uses a different belt too. My batteries are from NAPA called Deca. They are 1000 amps at 0 degrees. Don't get tricked by a 32 degree rating.

 

Here's an inherent problem that I think you are experiencing. Fords are known for a charging deficet (sp) at a low rpm. Which means that the system draw, especially with added accessories, exceeds the alt's output at low RPM's. What I have found that works is to put a smaller pulley on the Alt so that it runs at a higher RPM and puts out more amperage. The problem with going to the Optima style battery is that they will "Dry" out in a short period of time and leave you stranded. You eliminate the "Gassing" problem but you sacrifice the ability for the battery to withstand any overcharging that it would receive inder a high load. I would stick with the standard flat plate flooded design

 

exidenick is right. An ambulance has a switch to make the idle high when it is sitting with the lights etc. when on a call. Even thought it has a larger alternator, it won't keep up at idle speed.

 

quote:The problem with going to the Optima style battery is that they will "Dry" out in a short period of time and leave you stranded:end quote

I don't understand this statement. Been using Optima batteries for years. I have red tops in a 78' Ramcharger w/440 and an 86 Fiero GT that have been in since 1995 and a red top in my 86 F-250 w/cummins 5.9 since 1997 and also had one in my 87' SunRunner boat. Not a single problem, ever. The truck has been starting on the single Optima even when the outside temp hits single digits, without plugging in the block heater. I have no problem charging 2 deep cycle 6 volt golf cart batteries in my 5th wheel while traveling.

 

exidenick, as in exide batteries? could he be swayed toward flooded batteries? i have a fifth wheel trailer with 100 watts of solar panels going through a charge controller set at 12.8 volts (confirmmed with digital volt meter). it will boil my 3 deepcycle batteries dry in three months. i talked to a guy that has a larger system on a house boat charging at 13.8 volts running 12 optima batteries for over five years and has never had a problem with batteries drying out. i was told they are not flooded, they are filled with gel. going to put 3 optimas on my fifth wheel this spring.

 

Don't mean to sound like I'm bad mouthing Optima or any other Spiral cell type of battery, but they do have their limitations. First the Optima is NOT a gel battery it is an AGM (Abborbed Glass Mat) battery. The electorlyte is absorbed in the Porous separators, A normal Flooded battery requires approx. 5 Qts of electrolyte to fill it from dry, An AGM battery has approx 1.05 Qts with no free flowing electrolyte. Under an over charging situation Heat is created internally in the battery, which causes the H2O to evaporate. So a flooded battery is more forgiving and can be filled with Distilled water to bring it up to the proper levels. If you Evaporate 1 cup of water from an AGM battery that is 1/4 of its electrolyte it will loose its ability to produce it's rated output.
Second: I have never in my 35 years in this industry seen a solar charger that will monitor the battery voltage then shut off the current goint to the Battery. That may be why you are boiling batteries in 3 Months. Your friend sounds like he has an Automatic system on his boat that does shut down. I'm not putting any ones product down just giving Advantages / Disadvantages Keep me posted on how your RV's Optimas work, just Curious

 

Sounds like autozone's charger is bad. If the batteries passed the load test, the internals should be fine. Sometimes a battery wont take a charge if it has been completely drained.

 

thanks guys, your comments are very helpfull, so i guess i'll just go with the 200 amp alt then.

 

Hi, To keep the battery charging at iddle, I increased the RPM at around 700, it is now charging all the time. Dual batteries, the biggest Kirkland they have at Cosco works fine for me. My truck cranks at minus 15 Centigrade, around 0 F. It starts no problem.
I put in synthetic blend 0 - 30 oil. It uses a bit more oil because it is lighter but it cranks much easier. The pressure needle keeps in the middle, looks OK, same as when I have 15-40 in summer. I also had an ajustable voltage regulator put in and the mechanic cranked it up a bit higher than normall. No problem since.