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Recommend a good battery...

15yo old yellow top on the buggy (still has the 05 build date sticker on it) that just sits for extended periods at a time with no trickle chargers. Haven't been able to kill it yet. It sat for 18 months when I built the buggy and it fired it up without charging it. Was still showing 11.5V when I plugged it.

They don't make them like that anymore.

The rest of the fleet gets the cheapest Walmart AGM available.
 
I've swapped everything I own out to walmart 65 AGMs. I had too much trouble with the lead acid leaking and eating the terminals.

I'm thinking about going to CAT batteries on a few trucks and swapping to studs.
 
Still would run either the x2 from BatteriesPlus or NorthStar's. CAT does have a few lines that might be worth looking at.
 
Any idea where the optima lands in this these days, not made in mexico mean china?
I need one due to where the battery is under the bed, and the redtop is getting tired ?06? I think...
 
All good things come to an end

Wal-Mart is no longer selling $55 batteries made in Mexico that in my experience are top shelf batteries at a discount price.

I need to get my butt to a few smaller stores and round up any old stock group 65s

New batteries are all from Korea I believe
 
Projectjunkie said:
All good things come to an end

Wal-Mart is no longer selling $55 batteries made in Mexico that in my experience are top shelf batteries at a discount price.

I need to get my butt to a few smaller stores and round up any old stock group 65s

New batteries are all from Korea I believe
Click to expand...
I just bought a Maxx battery group 65. Maybe I should have gone with the $55 one instead?

20210827_210533.jpg
 
Toreadorranger said:
I just bought a Maxx battery group 65. Maybe I should have gone with the $55 one instead?

20210827_210533.jpg
Click to expand...
All of the Mexican ones I've seen have a serial number starting with jch, which i believe is Johnson controls

While half of the internet will tell you they are a she'll of their former self, I believe that the old stock batteries I've been buying over the last 2 years, floating between trucks, tractors, truck beds, garage floors, etc, will still be in service when that gets a dead cell.

If you throw yours on a bathroom scale, I'll weigh one of mine
 
Projectjunkie said:
All of the Mexican ones I've seen have a serial number starting with jch, which i believe is Johnson controls

While half of the internet will tell you they are a she'll of their former self, I believe that the old stock batteries I've been buying over the last 2 years, floating between trucks, tractors, truck beds, garage floors, etc, will still be in service when that gets a dead cell.

If you throw yours on a bathroom scale, I'll weigh one of mine
Click to expand...
My analog $8 bathroom scale says 48-50lbs (range of 3 different tries on the highly calibrated equipment.)
 
Pre merger carquest agm here and I love it. It died once, jumped it and recharged it with a trickle charger, and it still works 5yrs later. I do keep it on a trickle charger when the truck get parked over the winter. It's a rebranded deka, confirmed by our deka dealer from my previous job. I would buy one again, but I don't know if the advance merger messed all that up.

Side note one of the things I regret about my old job is never being able to go on the deka plant tour they invited us to!!
 
I had good then very bad luck with Optima's, the last two died in less than a year and until they give me another one to replace the last one I had I will never have anything to do with them again. I had a Deka AGM for a while that some one gave me that was six or seven years old when it died and I wouldn't have an issue putting another one in my truck again. I also had terrible luck with Walmart batteries and got tired of changing them out even under warranty altho I had no Idea how to judge the manufacturer before reading this thread. At the moment I'm running X2's in my stuff and really like them. I order online, get the discount then drive the two miles to batteries plus and pick them up. The batteries plus warranty is why I started using them after looking at Odyssey batteries "using it for winching voids the warranty" disclaimer.:shaking:
 
Projectjunkie said:
All of the Mexican ones I've seen have a serial number starting with jch, which i believe is Johnson controls

While half of the internet will tell you they are a she'll of their former self, I believe that the old stock batteries I've been buying over the last 2 years, floating between trucks, tractors, truck beds, garage floors, etc, will still be in service when that gets a dead cell.

If you throw yours on a bathroom scale, I'll weigh one of mine
Click to expand...
Did you lose your scale? :flipoff2:
 
Toreadorranger said:
Did you lose your scale? :flipoff2:
Click to expand...
So my scale said 36lbs:homer:
Maybe these newer ones from south Korea are well built, or one of us has a Fd scale:laughing:
If you get a chance, have yours load tested at some point, I'm curious how it does, the Mexican ones were consistently 895CCA
 
Projectjunkie said:
So my scale said 36lbs:homer:
Maybe these newer ones from south Korea are well built, or one of us has a Fd scale:laughing:
If you get a chance, have yours load tested at some point, I'm curious how it does, the Mexican ones were consistently 895CCA
Click to expand...
Re verified weight with a digital luggage scale, 47lbs.

Tested @ 85F, 1301 cca
20210907_161552.jpg
 
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This is a 5 yr old group 65, Napa battery that I'm trying to recover. Its been discharged for about half that time.

20210907_161833.jpg
 
Anyone have any tricks for bringing an AGM back to life? I have two Duralast "Platinum AGM" batteries that came with a rig I bought a couple years ago. They were both dead when I got it and the PO gave me his number and I was able to warranty them at Advance. I only put one back in and it lasted a couple years and was completely dead and wouldn't take a chage. Put the other in a couple months ago and was fine for a run, but let the truck sit too long without a maintainer and now it's completely dead and won't charge it all too. They're well out of warranty now.

I bought a Noco Genius charger and tried that, including trying to charge it in parallel with another good battery but no luck.

Any tricks to bring $400 worth of batteries back to life?
 
I'm running Duracell AGM's in both of my trucks (trail rig and daily). $125 (last one was in January 2020) from Sam's Club with a no-questions 2 year warranty. I have used that warranty twice becuase I had some faulty wiring that killed 2 batteries, but they replaced them.
 
bgaidan said:
Anyone have any tricks for bringing an AGM back to life? I have two Duralast "Platinum AGM" batteries that came with a rig I bought a couple years ago. They were both dead when I got it and the PO gave me his number and I was able to warranty them at Advance. I only put one back in and it lasted a couple years and was completely dead and wouldn't take a chage. Put the other in a couple months ago and was fine for a run, but let the truck sit too long without a maintainer and now it's completely dead and won't charge it all too. They're well out of warranty now.

I bought a Noco Genius charger and tried that, including trying to charge it in parallel with another good battery but no luck.

Any tricks to bring $400 worth of batteries back to life?
Click to expand...
If you can put it on a good charger that has an AGM repair function, it does work.
If not, then hook it up to a good regular battery in parallel and charge it normally, 10A-40A for 30 minutes to an hour, then trickle for a couple hours, then back up to a higher amp for a couple of hours, then trickle for a day or 2. This procedure somewhat simulates what the repair function does on a modern charger. That's how we used to resurrect old Optimas for racecars until modern chargers came out with a charge cycle compatible with AGM/Gel batteries. Don't give up on either method until you've tried it a couple of times. Back before my $500 Solar took a shit 6 months out of warranty, I'd had great experience with the first method, though one time the AGM wouldn't come back until I hooked a good battery in parallel to it and ran the repair function as well.
 
Projectjunkie said:
All good things come to an end

Wal-Mart is no longer selling $55 batteries made in Mexico that in my experience are top shelf batteries at a discount price.

I need to get my butt to a few smaller stores and round up any old stock group 65s

New batteries are all from Korea I believe
Click to expand...

Just bought a 65 from wally world. All were a JCH including the ones with a 9/21 sticker.
 
Will Scarlet said:
Looking in what Odyssey publishes for their warranty:


I don't see where they void the warranty specifically for winching. So where did see they void for winching?
Click to expand...
It was in the abuse section when I was looking for a new battery brand years ago Will. Looks like they removed it and that Odyssey has at some point been sold. Still if your a skeptical and non-trusting person such as I am then reading section A) would lead me to believe they still think the same way as before.
Im not saying its anything other that a great product, I just prefer a warranty that is simple and easy.
 
Bump bump

I have a duramax, but like the 34/78 dual terminal for jump starting, and being able to rob one battery to put on my trailer in a pinch

The diehard platinum AGM pair gave me 7 solid years of abuse, but I'm finding little or nothing in the $200 range besides optima red top 3yr free replacement, the next tier is odessy (?) At 300 bucks each

Has optima gotten their shit together?

Any other suggestions at $200ea?

Im kinda thinking about getting the optima at a retail store versus a supply house to get them warrantied at 35mo once they aren't operating at 100%....
 
Lost the quote
See below

I'm in projectjunkies spot, as I have a failgear optima battery box welded under the bed...
Gunna see what decca has to offer tho!

purty sure the $200 part is history tho...:shaking:
 
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The Freeak said:
I think we had a thread on auto battery user experiences on that "other" website, so how about we start one here?

I used to swear by Exide's AGM batteries, but currently (ha!) I'm using an older Red Top Optima I bought from some guy for $20. It's 5 years old by the date code and after using some tricks I saw on the worldy widey web, it's been holding a charge in my XJ (it sees nearly daily use)...

What are your experiences?
Click to expand...
What were the tricks?
The Freeak

my redtop shitthee bed last night...

edit
Looks like the failgear battery box now lists it fits a decca\optima battery,
this one is 6+ years old.
Anyone know what the difference is in a decca vs optima case shape as to fitment?
I seriously don't want to mod this junk so one or the other is in my future, but no decca on the shelf here to test fit one...
It seems the decca (east penn) has not gotten any bad press yet?
It looks like the decca intimidator is a basic match in group 34/78 to the optima AND less $$$:smokin:
 
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No one has input...
:confused:
Thanx A
Guess I need to pull some measurements offn my battery box and hunt down what all will lay on its side in the box I have.
Thanx
So far the interwebz say All agm, no where do I see the optima sizing issues with the box ...
 
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