I got the bad news yesterday... one battery bad, the other marginal.
Well, I plan to relocate both batteris to the frame rail or bed. I plan to use some top quality welder cable and quality connectors but here's a question.....

If I do the welder cable, will running Kwik's "wire from the alternator" trick still help with the charging circuit or is the good cable going to take care of any problems?

I'm off now to find Optima batteries at the best price I can. Hey, if you're gonna go top dog then go top dog!!

CedricR.

 

Kind of depends on how you decide to modify the battery cables.
The new cables will definately remove any voltage drop that the old cables had.
Just need to make sure that there is new wiring from the alternator post to the batteries.
Old wiring tends to create slight voltage drops after a while and that is why I use those jumper wires, to remove the voltage drop.
Another thing that I recommend you do, since you are installing remote batteries, is to install a jumper post somewhere in the engine compartment.
A place that you can connect a jumper cable to in case of emergency.
All it takes is one weekend of accidentally leaving the dome light on and now how the heck are you going to jump the truck or connect a battery charger?

 

Thanks Kwik,
I'd thought about the jumper posts... if I didn't put them in, I'd be stranded for sure. I always say, "I'm not paranoid, just experienced!"

 

I'm going to use that line the next time my wife rolls her eyes at something I do.

 

I used to work at Auto Zone. We had guys come in with 7.3 and 6.0 and buy optimas, but they always came back to buy starndard batteries. IMO,the big draw startups our trucks need must wear the optimas out real quick or something. We would take the batteries in as cores/warranty and trickle charge and load test them and they always failed. One guy went to two sets under warranty and the other guys went through one set and decided to go back. Maybe someone else will chime in who has had good experience in their diesel to contradict this. But I have seen it first hand.

 

I have heard this as well. I considered buying Optimas too on my last battery purchase..and was told not to by the best mechanic I know. I got standard Motorcraft replacements.

Apparently the Optimas, like you said, don't stand up to the constant abuse.

 

My red-top Optima's have always held up nicely, and I have a buttload of electronics too

 

My red top Optimas have only been in for just over a year but have had zero problems. I have re-chargeable flashlights, a major power inverter hard-wired in, and have both run my truck hard and let it sit for several days while I rode the Harley to save fuel.

The red tops have been great for me.

 

Wow, with all these conflicting reviews I'm reminded of back when I first bought a new car battery. It was a DieHard. It was garbage. My (then) boss ran DieHards in all his vehicles and they performed fine for years. I've since bought used vehicles with DieHard batteries and they all failed in a very short amount of time.

I guess some products work for you or they don't.

CedricR.

 

Optima batteries used to be built by Optima using ther own propeiraty process. They were bough out by johnson contols in 2000. it appears they have been cost reduced into an over-priced average quaility battery. I have bought at least a dozen red tops, early ones were great, last few were crap.