New Battery Suggestions

[SFXJ125]

Thanks all! I ended up buying the DieHard. Will have to trim the cradle a little and buy some longer bolts. Easy enough. Now for re-wiring, anyone know of local place in springs to buy new heavy duty connectors/wires? I know Dave had a suggestion before.

Thanks,

Scotty

 

[freerider15]

Thanks all! I ended up buying the DieHard. Will have to trim the cradle a little and buy some longer bolts. Easy enough. Now for re-wiring, anyone know of local place in springs to buy new heavy duty connectors/wires? I know Dave had a suggestion before.

Thanks,

Scotty

Good choice.

As far as cable goes...find a welding store. Thats where I bought all my 00 gauge wire for the buggy. 00 might be a little overkill for you, and its not "cheap" (normally used for welding cord). They should have smaller gauges in stock as well. The wire from the welding store is going to be what you want over stuff from say...Home Depot...since the stuff at the welding store is fine strand, not thick strand.

 

[eflores]

Hensley Battery on Galley just east of Wooten
every thing you will need

 

[SFXJ125]

Nice, thanks guys. I will stop there today.

 

[freerider15]

Interesting red for those who think Optima is the same Optima that we all used to love:

Thread:

Snippets:

Fourth of all, the Sears Die Hard Platinum P4 is an Odyssey battery. Make sure that it isn't just a "Die Hard" nor a "Die Hard Gold." It must be a PLATINUM. The batteries are identical electrically and in construction. The only difference is the color of the plastic case and the label. I re-verified this fact today by calling two different departments at Enersys. You can read the announcement of this distribution deal here: News Release=


Fifth of all, OPTIMA brand batteries, that are now made exclusively off shore or over the border, have gone downhill for YEARS. Maybe the guy that used to work for them will get his tongue gouged out for spilling the beans, but I don't have any relationship with ANY battery company, so I'm not afraid to speak. Unlike Odyssey, which uses pure virgin lead, Optimas at some point reportedly began using recycled lead. I don't know if this began when JCI (Johnson Controls) took over in 2000, or when that Swedish company bought Optima back in 1994 or so.

Recycled lead doesn't hold up like virgin pure lead. But it sure costs less.

Up until at least 1993, Optima's were using pure lead, and they were the best battery available at the time. The technology spiracell used in Optima batteries was protected by patent, and that patent was owned by a subsidiary of the Gates Corporation, which invented this battery back in 1967. This same group, through a series of sales, acquisitons, and spin-offs is now part of Enersys Corporation, as the Odyessy group.

The Optima brand was sold twice, and the brand that made a solid name for itself in the '70's, and even more so in the '80s, was leveraged by each buyer to capitalize on the consumer's awareness and perception of quality, with cost cutting measures to generate more profits. The end result is what we have today... the Optima battery that still enjoys a lingering "mystique" of being "the best", while suffering the malignment of being built like the worst.

The Optima's former stellar reputation has been supplanted by stone cold reality. Optima's are NOT the best. They are a sucker's battery, riding on a tailwind of an illustrious past, and not worth the price they fetch at Sam's Club, much less the premium they charge at the speed shops.

All of this is correct with slight differences, When the Swedes owned optima, they paid us well and quality was foremost of all at all cost. JCI is the company that KILLED optima batteries, we always had 99.99 pure lead until JCI bought optima. The first thing they did was: fired all of the on staff scientists, then fired all of the PHD's, then fired the chemists, then dismantled the chemistry lab, then dismantled the prototype lab, then got rid of the pure lead and replaced it with lead with higher tin content, then JCI brought in their genius engineers and re formulated the lead acid paste, then replaced the AGM paper with lower grade paper, ex cetera, ex cetera. All of this was done within the first 2 years of their ownership! We had to fight like hell to prove that what we had when they purchased us was superior to what they had done.
we finally convinced them to begin returning to some of the successful methods Gates had originally designed, but only after making them think that it was their idea. When the U.S. plant shut down, we were using pure lead, similar to original paper and similar paste formula, however, there were many, many other changes they had made in the manufacturing process that negatively affected the optima but produced higher volumes. In my opinion, the Enersys Odyssey is, by far, the very best battery on the market today. I am aware of some of the mfg practices being used specifically on the optima in mexico, and they are not conducive to quality!

 

[1-tonxj]

Interesting red for those who think Optima is the same Optima that we all used to love:

Thread:

Snippets:

Nice to know this now...LOL...I bought a Yellow Top last Summer from UH-OH-ZONE for about $205.00 ...I did buy a Red top back in 2002 from Hi-counbtry 4x4 that battery would not hold a charge by 2004 and would not take one by 2005 the ZJ it was in however sat for months on end without starting ,so I attributed it to that since Optima batteries were touted as the best at that time, Well I will not be buying a second I see Odyssey's going into the dual set up since I can't see why i would pay top dollar for a battery that uses inferior recycled materials at top price .