red, yellow or blue?

Lucky Jeff

Lucky Jeff

Stock Sucks
Joined
Apr 3, 2007
Messages
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So I need (want) to mount my batteries on the RH framerail. Have all the cable but need to build the battery box. Can't seem to figure out with Optima to buy. I know that Optimas "can" be crap and it just depends on what batch you get. But with the discount I get, I can't pass it up. Red tops seem to be most common But if the yellow or blues are better, I will get them. I don't have too much "stress" on the batteries. All excess lighting (and even some factory lighting) is LED. I do haul a camper every now and then and tow often. I also go to the drive-ins throughout the summer. So that is 4+ hours of listenting to the stereo with the truck off. So which would you choose?
 
I'd get the reds. Ran em in my 99, and would have them in this truck if I'd have had the time to go get them when my alternator and batteries crapped out on me
 
If your grid heaters are still connected then there is a lot of stress placed on the batteries and alternator.

Red tops are intended for starting applications.

Most Optimas that I have seen/heard of haven't been lasting more than a year. I personally believe that this is due to them reducing the quality and/or amount of lead being used in their batteries due to the high lead prices that we have been seeing the last few years. Other battery manufacturers are doing it too, so it isn't just them. The only batteries that I will buy as of right now will be made by East Penn manufacturing and are sold under a variety of names. This is due to the fact that the company I work for has done a LOT of testing on automotive batteries and they are their sole supplier.
 
PRattenbury said:
I have a couple 3-year-old red tops that would beg to differ.
Click to expand...

They're older.

The old ones seem to work well. It is the newer ones that don't seem to work. I would consider three years to be on the edge of when things started heading south from what I've seen at work and through my own experience.

YMMV.
 
I've got a 10 year old red top, a pair of 5 year old yellows and a 3 month old red top that would also say otherwise.

If you can swing it, the yellows seem to do fine at starting/extended usage for me. The red's do ok too, just don't leave them discharged for too long.
 
Well that's the other problem. This truck sits for sometimes months at a time now.. I suppose if I had red tops though I could just put a battery tender on them.

I've looked at a couple other options. But the Optimas are 65 bucks a piece.. All others seem to be over 200 for some GOOD ones.. That's tough to swallow. Hell the batteries I have in the truck are only a year old.. I just don't want them cluttering up the engine bay anymore.
 
I wouldn't run an Optima battery if you paid me....well I would but I wouldn't enjoy it.
 
There are red tops in my truck. They were in it when I bought it and that was eight years ago and they are still doing fine! I have never seen batteries last as long as these.
 
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