I opted to change my stock battery with a yellow-top Optima when I upgraded my audio system but the battery is not as wide as the original. I've temporarily wedged a piece of wood on the fender side of the battery so that it would fit snug against the bracket for now. What are some of your suggestions for securing the battery? Thanks!

,Marc

 

I just tightened the bracket on the right side of the battery that was originally there and mine hasn't move an inch since they day i put it on, tryi tightening that piece and see if that works for you. Other than that your best bet would be one of those billet battery holders, but those can get pretty pricey.

 

i just used a universal battery hold-down from autozone. it is two bars with a hook on one end, and threaded on the other. drilled two holes in the inner fender, and strapped that booder down. optima also has adapters to make the factory hold down work with their batteries, you could look into that too. supposedly they should have come with the battery.

 

Don't be ghetto and just strap it in there, not if you plan on opening your hood.

I have one of these boxes and am very happy right now.

Eddie Marine

 

Here's what I used to hold my battery down...

 

Optima has the adapters to make them fit. Most new ones sold now come with several different ones for varoious makes.

 

Which Optima battery is better the yellow top or the red top?

 

Marc,

Do a Google search for Optima Hold Down ...

I used to have the picture of the piece and the
part number on here, but lost it with my album ...

It's a plastic set of pieces for FORD ... Comes
WITH the battery if they know it when you buy it.



Cliff

 

Yellow is deep discharge

 

I use the Yella one

 

Eddie marine

 

With mine i used the hold down adapter that came with the battery, like a couple guys said they usually come with the universal mounting kit. I put my Optima in this spring when i got my truck out of storage, and it's still tight as the day i put it in. wjm, I like the set up you have on your Red Top, where did you get the billet hold down piece and the digital post connecters?

 

I use the eddie marine as well, but do a search for jeep batteries. I think quadratec.com, has simple billet bar type hold downs that look sharp and are cheaper than the eddie ones.

 

The red is technically the starting battery, and yellow for deep cycle, but the yellow has as much starting power if not more than a standard starting battery.

Red vs. yellow....the red has more CCA under full charge than the yellow but the yellow stays more constant as it is discharged which ends up giving it more CCA under a partial charge than a red. The yellow is meant to deep cycle more than the red is, but either will go bad if you discharge them to nothing too many times, it's just that both are a whole lot better than a standard battery.

The reds are know for going bad a lot more than the yellows...but this was several years ago and they may have fixed that problem now...but I doubt it...

I have a yellow in my truck..

There are about 3 or 4 yellow ones to chose from based on size shape power and pole layout...the part number I got to fit mine is "sc34du"

 

I don't know where you get that from. The internet is a great tool for hearsay, though...

I personally have had two red-tops that lasted more than 10 years, one was in a daily driver and accrued well over 100,000 miles in those 10 years without problem, EVER. And that was with a multi-amp (appx 500 watts) stereo system, as well. I probably jump started dozens of cars, but nobody ever had to jump start my car. I only replaced it because it seemed to be turning over a little slower, and when I realized that I had put it in the car in 1994, I didn't even test it, I just bought another one. (This was just a couple fo months ago, actually.)

I have used red top Optimas in everything I have owned over the past 15 years or so, since they were first marketed by Interstate, and never a failure. I once had an alternator go bad (actually the regulator quit functioning), and it overcharged the crap out of the battery and the battery swelled up like a balloon (well, as much as a plastic case can swell, but it was pretty obvious next to another one) and the case cracked. The Optima dealer replaced it free of charge, no questions asked. It didn't leak, and it still started the car fine. I went in to buy another battery, not to get it warrantied. Actually, that lesson taught me to install voltmeters, as the alternator idiot light never illuminated, since the alternator was technically "functioning" (I guess). I also believe that a standard battery would have exploded, and the red top did not, in fact it still worked.

Also, you can buy the red top Optimas for $99 at Sam's Wholesale Club, today, and I paid over $150 for the one that I bought in 1994. (I still have the receipt.) They were pretty hard to find back then.

By the way, I'm not trying to argue that the red top is better than the yellow. They are different, and the differences have been clearly outlined by prior posts, and I don't disagree. I happen to use red tops because they are (or used to be) marketed as auto batteries, and yellow are (at least used to be) marketed more as "marine" (aka "deep discharge" as previously stated), and when I spoke to people at Optima (not recently, however), they thought that the red tops would last longer in a "daily driver" type of use due to the design of the battery.
I am, however, questioning the claim that red tops are prone to fail. I find that impossible to believe based on personal experience.