Battery Life

[drag racer]

Optima's are fine, but at what they cost, are they worth it?

YES!! I guarantee you, all it will it will take is one major failure of an OEM or any other liquid lead acid battery leaking and causing major havoc in the area its located in and you will change your mind. I have had this happen twice in two different vehicles that were less than 5 years old when I bought them, and swear I will never own another liquid lead-acid battery, no matter what Optimas cost!

 

[JCyrbok]

my OEM's started to get weak after only a couple of years (90's in the summers and -10 in the winters will do that. LOL). Optimas have been in for 6 years and have been completely problem free. If they ever bite it I will get optimas to replace my optimas.



J-

 

[rbattelle]

when the originals give up, I will replace them with Odessey's...

Amen to that. Far more power than anything else I've heard of.



I'm thinking of going with a single PC2150.



Ryan

 

[MFalkinham]

I still have the OEM batteries in my '03. Whenever I'm not driving the truck (which is most of the time thanks to fuel prices) I hook up my BatteryMinder desulfator to keep them in good condition.

I got mine at Northern Tool, and it works great to recondition several kinds of batteries.

BatteryMinder Battery Charger / Maintainer with Desulphator — 12 Volt 2/4/8 Amp, Model# 12248 | Battery Maintainers | Northern Tool + Equipment

 

[NMcCoy]

I too have a couple battery minders model 12117 I just got after replaceing the battery in my car and checking the trucks batts. My right side battery was 12. 30 volts and would only get up to 12. 50, and my left one was 12. 60.

After a week on the minder it now will hold a full charge 12. 68. It did bring back the battery on my generator.



My 2000 ctd had the batterys replaced by dealer within the first six months, they went for about six years until it was starting to crank slower. I replaced with exide orbitals agm's and they was about to get replaced until using the minder.

Not happy with the exides as the one in my car was just two years old. Was going to go with a optima but desided to try the new die hard platinum.



Lots of good info on batterys on the vdc site.

 

[MMeier]

Replaced the stockers in the '03 at 191k miles and 5 years, right side one started to seep some around the negative post. Put in some red tops I purchased from Summit a few years ago when they were only like $79 a piece. :{In the '93 I went with a rebuilt sealed group 31 from a local rebuilder, for $32 ( with tax) I want to see how far I go with it.