Optima Batteries

[Boomer]

My Motorcraft battery is going out on me. If the truck sits more than a week I have to charge it back up. I have checked for a power drain while the truck is off...none. I think all the rough trips has taken there toll. I was looking at getting an optima yellow top now that I have a winch...can anyone tell me if they are full of crap on their adds (like K&N). I know that companies tell you only what they want you to know about their products...that's why I like these forums so much...you can cut through the BS with real world experience and test.

 

[Explorin94]

I deal with the Interstate Battery Guy on a daily basis. He deals Optima's, he said a good deep cycle is just as good as any Optima that has been sold. In the short time I have dealed with him he said that he had warrantied about a half a dozen Optimas

 

[Ozwynn]

I can't tell you anything about the optima. but I can say I agree with bret's battery guy. your winch sould already be hooked to a deep cycle battery that is isolated from the engine battery. Winches are battery killers when hooked to an automotive battery combined with vibration and impact from rough trips. before I killed my explorer I had the winch and off road lights tied to two 12v marine batteries in parallel (pos to pos, neg to ground) with an isolator so they could not draw from the engine battery. I did this because I thought my 1000 cca duralast gold could handle the winch and lights ..... killed it in a month.

 

[krugford]

I would definitely go with a deep cycle. As for the optimas, their advantage for off road is that they are an AGM battery. There is no liquid acid to leak and the AGM helps to support the plates to resist shock, rough handling, etc. Unless you are really into hard core rock crawling or something that gives you truck a teeth chattering hit on a regular basis, I would say you'll probably be fine with a regular lead acid (deep cycle).

 

[Boomer]

Thank you all for your replys. Certainly food for thought!

 

[Jeepman401]

If you do decide on the optima, dont waste your money on a actual optrima battery.

You can get one in a napa brand. Its just as good, and costs less

 

[High Desert Ranger]

If you do decide on the optima, dont waste your money on a actual optrima battery.

You can get one in a napa brand. Its just as good, and costs less

Napa branded batteries are made by Exide. The Exide version of the Optima is called the Orbital.

The only real complaint that I have ever heard about an Optima and I'm not sure it's true or not so treat it as a rumor. Is that the Optima's have a "thermal run away" problem. Which was explained to me that under high heat conditions that they begin to fail.

 

[calypso93]

I vote for Optima. Mine is a 10 year old redtop, and still works well. Even sitting for over a month during the winter, it'll get me started. Maybe the other brands are OK. I don't remember anything else being available back then.

 

[Jeepman401]

The napa battery in my ranger sat for 6 months, then got taken out and used in one of the jeeps which had no alternator at the time, so it seems to hold up nice