I've got my winch bumper done and my Warn 8274 ready to go. When I went to hook it up I realized that I only have one small battery. I have a new 800 cold craking amps deep cycle battery that I use for my trolling motor and I was wondering if this would be a good battery to run the truck and winch. For now I'm only planning on running one battery, is the deep cycle my best bet or should I stick with a regular battery?

Stick with a regular battery but change the power cable from you Alternator form the #10 it probably is to a #6 or bigger. This will really help the recharge after and during use of the winch.

Is there a problem with running a deep cycle battery???

Originally posted by 85toyboy
Is there a problem with running a deep cycle battery???
nope...I've been running a yellow top optima for a year with winchin somebody every trip, no problems and I use it as a starting bat., too.

I think there's supposed to be a longevity problem using a deep cycle battery as a regular starting battery, but I too ran a deep cycle on my jeep for over a year without any problems. However, after I swapped it out, I let it sit for 3 months and then tried to use it on a boat and one of the cells had died. Might be just coincidence but it wasn't supposed to die that early. Also, it wasn't the optima, just a regular marine deep cycle.

I run a regular battery for my every-day accessories, and my winch/off-road lights are hooked up to a big deep cycle battery. This way each battery is being used the way it is supposed to be used. I have seen a few deep cycles that have had a short life when used in an "every-day" application.

Originally posted by Cutter

nope...I've been running a yellow top optima for a year with winchin somebody every trip, no problems and I use it as a starting bat., too.


Well a Yellow top isn't exactly a deap cycle battery either.

I had debated on what kind of battery to get for my trail rig. I finally decided just to get a big amp battery from a parts store w/ a good warrenty. I went with one from Autozone - 800 CCA and 1000 CA. Was like $60 and had a 3 year no questions asked warrenty (plus an 8 year pro-rate). Plus it had top and side posts :smokin: . I'm getting broke from building this thing from scratch so I had a hard time justifying an Optima. Just my measly $.02

I'm with brector:
$70 Autozone Duralast battery. 1000cca. 3 year REPLACEMENT, 8 year total warranty. No Questions asked.
Optima's have a 1 year warranty. Unless you need to mount it upside down it's overated in my opinion especialy with only a 12 month warranty on a $100+ battery.
What ever you do don't go to the side post on a optima for a winch. Go to the top. THe side post lead is thin and it will melt and release the bolt. I have seen it happen 3 times and they will not cover that as a warranty at most places.

I used to run a 1100 cca battery from the local Co-Op farm store before I got my Red top Optima. Was a GREAT battery, and only like $75....

red top optimas= JUNK
yellow tops= the shiznit
I went thru 4 red tops before getting the last one warrantied and putting it into service in the daily driver. gone yellow, never looked back, and the winch pulls much better than with the red tops.

i ased warn tech dept this very question. they recommend the red top.

you guys that run regular batters are asking for trouble. what do you do when you roll? what if the battery gets punctured? just seems foolish not to run a gel battery.

Originally posted by camo
you guys that run regular batters are asking for trouble. what do you do when you roll? what if the battery gets punctured? just seems foolish not to run a gel battery.

My battery is mounted in my "flat" bed in a sealed black plastic box. If I roll - we'll just roll her back over :D. If it gets punctured where it is - I'm fawked because that means my gas tank, rear axle, and bed are gone :flipoff2:

I would never run an acid battery in my 4X rig. Heck, I even have a red top in my daily driver car :D Its worth the few extra buck to avoid corrosion. I run 2 red tops in the 4X. Works great for winch and starts everytime.

Ummm optimas ARE acid-containing. I have seen them leak too. I also think they're not really an improvement over a decent conventional battery.

he's right.

Optima's are lead-acid batteries (http://www.optimabatteries.com/faq.asp)

Originally posted by Grim Reaper
I'm with brector:
$70 Autozone Duralast battery. 1000cca. 3 year REPLACEMENT, 8 year total warranty. No Questions asked.
Optima's have a 1 year warranty. Unless you need to mount it upside down it's overated in my opinion especialy with only a 12 month warranty on a $100+ battery.
What ever you do don't go to the side post on a optima for a winch. Go to the top. THe side post lead is thin and it will melt and release the bolt. I have seen it happen 3 times and they will not cover that as a warranty at most places. Thats funny,I just bought a new Optima yesterday.2yr. free replacement,6yr. total warranty.$119 AT PepBoys.:beer:

and all this time i thought they were gel cells. learn something new every day.

Originally posted by liveaxle



Well a Yellow top isn't exactly a deap cycle battery either.
from the Optima web site...
Deep Cycle Battery
OPTIMA Yellow Top™ batteries, featuring SPIRALCELL TECHNOLOGY, are designed for all of your deep cycle needs.
i'm kinda slow this morning, what 'excatly' is adeep cycle?:confused:

On the Optima's:

AGM. Absorbed Glass Mat. Yes, still a lead acid battery but they are sealed. You shouldn't see any acid leakage from the, but if your voltage regulator is fried and you start pumping 16V into the battery they will "vent". Nice way of saying internally burst from too much pressure, and yes that is battery acid spewing from the vent. :eek: Thankfull doesn't happen, unless something has gone wrong.

Deep Cycle.... A long, low current, drain on the battery. Winching is a good example. Optima Yellow tops are funny, as they can cycle a few thousand times as long as you don't discharge them down to zero. If you do a near zero discharge the life will be only a few hundred cycles.

Ya, they aren't fool proof... but not a bad battery for deep cycle. I had 24 of them in my truck. At $5000 for a set of the group 31, you learn the proper care and feeding of them! :D

24 Optima's in the truck (http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/121c.html)

Tom :usa:

To those of you killing Optimas by winching, you're not using the side terminals for the winch hook-up - are you? They're just thin metal strips coming down inside of the case from the big top terminals.

roundrocktom......................i do by pronounce you king of the battery nerds. :D sweet EV there bud.

have you ever seen the eletric range rover rock crawler ? cool
when are you gonna build a electric crawler ?

Originally posted by PJR
Thats funny,I just bought a new Optima yesterday.2yr. free replacement,6yr. total warranty.$119 AT PepBoys.:beer:
Then they have changed the warranty in the last couple years. Last time I checked (probably 3 years ago) at Batteries plus the told me 12 months. I remember a bud being highly pissed because he could not get his 14 month old battery replaced when it gave it up.
You still paid $50 more and got 1 year less replacement and 2 years less pro rated.
As for my battery getting punctured........ If that happens I'm missing a couple feet of the front of my truck. Most batteries seal fairly well. I'm not worried about it leaking....baking soda is cheap.
Not all of us are regulars to being inverted Camo :)

Originally posted by Dr. Evil
To those of you killing Optimas by winching, you're not using the side terminals for the winch hook-up - are you? They're just thin metal strips coming down inside of the case from the big top terminals.
winch hooks to the top, starting to the side. I've seen them melt on the side from winchin, too...

Originally posted by Grim Reaper

Then they have changed the warranty in the last couple years. Last time I checked (probably 3 years ago) at Batteries plus the told me 12 months. I remember a bud being highly pissed because he could not get his 14 month old battery replaced when it gave it up.
You still paid $50 more and got 1 year less replacement and 2 years less pro rated.
As for my battery getting punctured........ If that happens I'm missing a couple feet of the front of my truck. Most batteries seal fairly well. I'm not worried about it leaking....baking soda is cheap.
Not all of us are regulars to being inverted Camo :)

you'd actually be surprised how often batteries explode. when i worked at checker in phoenix we used to get about 15 batteries a week that had "vented" most of the time they were melted around the posts, but many times the posts had blown off, the case was cracked, or on a few occasions the entire top of the battery had blown off and split the case in half.

I notice none of you have mentioned the Exide Orbital. its around the same price as the optima but has a 3 year warranty and is supposedly a dry cell. I used to sell em at checker and we never had one come back, but we didn't sell a lot either. just wondering if anyone had an experience or opinion on em, im thinkin about getting one.

Dallas

Is it good to run a Red Top and Yellow Top together? Makes sense. One to run everyday things off and one to use while using that blender at camp for long times.

roundrocktom...Damn that looks familiar, except our school's electric race team car is 144 volt, so we run the batteries in 2 banks of 12...we were practicing hot pits last weekend, nothing like grabbing those things in 3 packs, and serving them between your legs out of the battery compartments (4 packs of 3 batteries on each side of the car). Each batteryman pulls 2 packs, then runs a car length forward, as 2 crewmen roll the car forward, then the batterymen each reload 2 fresh packs into the car...nothing like a nice backbreaking day at the races...

I use to sell batteries through a local auto parts store, mostly commercialized fleets were purchasing them. The fleet supervisors would buy the red tops for starting purposes, and the yellow tops for running elecrically operated equipment. I had always gotten great reviews on these batteries, sure there was that occasional "bad apple", but you're bound to get one in everything you buy.
I personally ran a National commercial 1000amp battery for all my needs, these batteries were used for diesels. It currently won't fit in my XJ, but soon that'll be taken care of.
One thing to keep in mind is, on the smaller cased, higher amperage batteries, the plastic separating plates get thinner, thus in a moderate to high vibration unit/vehicle, the lead plates wear through the plastic separaters a little quicker.

Originally posted by Cutter

winch hooks to the top, starting to the side. I've seen them melt on the side from winchin, too...


yeap, i learned that one the hard way, had a melt down on my red top,,,,,,,,,, but it has held up for years, and im still using the melted one, just the top mounts :D

Newbie says for Optima questions, RTFM at http://www.optimabatteries.com :

Can I hook an OPTIMA up in parallel with my other battery?
No, when hooking batteries together in parallel they should be of identical make, model, and of similar age.


http://www.optimabatteries.com/usingOptima/applicationsYellow.asp

http://www.optimabatteries.com/images/products/deepWinches.gif

Starting applications in high-accessory vehicles/High Cycling Applications. Vehicles with computers, extra radios, electronic components, lights, winches, etc. will create excessive amperage drain that can damage a starting battery. Recommend the OPTIMA Yellow Top to provide fast recharging and longer life due to its' ability to cycle over 300 times.

Originally posted by roundrocktom
On the Optima's:

AGM. Absorbed Glass Mat. Yes, still a lead acid battery but they are sealed. You shouldn't see any acid leakage from the, but if your voltage regulator is fried and you start pumping 16V into the battery they will "vent". Nice way of saying internally burst from too much pressure, and yes that is battery acid spewing from the vent. :eek: Thankfull doesn't happen, unless something has gone wrong.

Deep Cycle.... A long, low current, drain on the battery. Winching is a good example. Optima Yellow tops are funny, as they can cycle a few thousand times as long as you don't discharge them down to zero. If you do a near zero discharge the life will be only a few hundred cycles.

Ya, they aren't fool proof... but not a bad battery for deep cycle. I had 24 of them in my truck. At $5000 for a set of the group 31, you learn the proper care and feeding of them! :D

24 Optima's in the truck (http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/121c.html)

Tom :usa:

yea, for some sick setups EV vehicles are the way to look. I used to be on a solar/electric car team, and we got to use gel cells. Great bats, but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

Camo -- amazing thing is getting SHOCKED by 200+ VDC. Dumb stunt on my part as I was using BOTH HANDS to check for any warm terminals. Not an issue across one battery, but managed to get my hands across a STRING of batteries. Took the heart about a day to settle back down. :(

The guys running the electric Rover can be found hereWilde Electric Rover (http://store.wilde-evolutions.com/wilde/rover.html) Haven't personally seen that vehicle, but it is a sweet rig. Nice thing about electric power, you can effectively have full torque at 50 rpm!!! Biggest problem I had was remembering to use the clutch when I got back into my Land Cruiser!!! In the ev I only used 2 & 3rd.


CrazyHorse -- nice race car!!! Nothing like getting "hands on" experience with something to race. When I was at Motorola I was a long time supporter of the FSAE & ev programs.

Schuss -- The batteries were the group 31 prototypes. About $6000 worth of batteries. Thankfully I got reimbursed for those since the truck was my "company" vehicle. :D

An electric rock crawler would be cool! Started to build up another electric vehicle (small & fast), but approximate cost was $10K... with a near zero resale. So bought a FJ40 with my "ev" money instead. Little different when you have an expense account to pay for those $300 IGBT's (you need six, and other stuff... for the three phase control module it is easy to spend $3000 and one line of incorrect software... BOOM! Sounded like a .44 magnum going off next to my ear!).

Tom :usa: