Battery choice
08-22-2016, 05:45 PM
#13
JK Enthusiast
08-22-2016, 05:54 PM
#14
JK Enthusiast
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Schofield Barracks, HI
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Yellow top for over three years and lots of lights with no jeep running and winch time on it. I've had really good luck so far as I have used optima for well over 10 years it seems. All higher end batteries are good thou.
08-22-2016, 06:19 PM
#15
JK Enthusiast
Curious which to get because the other night I had recover somebodies jeep buried to the frame. I had my 20" rigid light running and pulling the winch at the same time. And my lights would almost go out with the jeep running at the same time. So wasn't sure if I need a deep cycle battery or not. I've read both good and bad with optima, odyssey is expensive, and hard to find the Diehard Platinum.
I read JP Magazines battery shootout, but that was a year ago I believe. Time to shop around for the best prices.
I read JP Magazines battery shootout, but that was a year ago I believe. Time to shop around for the best prices.
Not surprised, your lights dimmed. Your battery and alternator can supply only so much power. If it was a really hard pull, your winch might have been consuming 400+ amps. Your alternator can put out a peak of 140 amps, but not at idle. You would have to rev the engine to get that much from it. The battery will provide power as well, but it is more short lived. The battery can put out 800 amps when cold but only for a short time. The amps start dropping off after a couple minutes as the battery and wiring heats up.
The standard lead acid battery (Optima Red) can provide lots of instantaneous power for a short period of time. A deep cycle battery (Optima Yellow) can provide less instantaneous power but can do it for a longer period of time and has better recovery performance.
The only way to improve the continuous high amp output performance is to add more deep cycle batteries or upgrade the alternator.
Or you could have doubled up the winch line with a pulley and used lots less power.
Last edited by maxspongebob; 08-22-2016 at 06:29 PM.
09-07-2016, 02:10 PM
#16
JK Enthusiast
Diehard Platinums (rebadged Odyssey) have been discontinued.
Frankly, no great loss in my opinion, first one in my dual battery setup died 3 years in and the second 6 months later. I decided to go back to Optima's for my dual battery setup. Readily available, reasonably priced, and I have not had any Optima issues in the past.
Frankly, no great loss in my opinion, first one in my dual battery setup died 3 years in and the second 6 months later. I decided to go back to Optima's for my dual battery setup. Readily available, reasonably priced, and I have not had any Optima issues in the past.
09-08-2016, 12:11 AM
#19
JK Jedi Master
Got a couple Diehard Platinums several years ago before the warranty was shortened--100 month warranty. They replaced two Yellowtop Optimas--one lasted three years, the other one year. That's my personal experience, but the trouble is one guy can get ten years out of a WalMart battery because his Jeep use is easy on the battery, where as there are folks like me who are extremely hard on them.
During my recently completed Al-Can trip my traveling companion last one of his batteries just south of the Arctic Circle (when the Arctic Ocean is your destination and you have another 800 miles before return to a big city, that's why you have dual batteries). It was a pricey, AGM style battery. We' d already run Dempster Highway in Inuvik to Canada, which is not quite as rough as Dalton Highway in Alaska. But it tore up his battery. I don't remember the brand, and hesitate to guess, but the problem he ran into was no one in the state carried that brand of "car" battery. We were told it was the most popular brand in truck batteries--I mean real trucks, not pick-ups--and especially by trucks used on Dalton Highway--because it would withstand the rigors of the road. So my friend's problem was rather unusual. The company stood behind the battery to the extent that they reimbursed him for a different brand battery so he wouldn't have to wait until return to the lower 48 to replace the battery. That was pretty darned customer-oriented of them.
Bottom line: Pick a battery, any battery generally recognized for quality, and if you are hard on it (rock crawling isn't hard on batteries; overlanding is), go the extra cost of an AGM battery.
During my recently completed Al-Can trip my traveling companion last one of his batteries just south of the Arctic Circle (when the Arctic Ocean is your destination and you have another 800 miles before return to a big city, that's why you have dual batteries). It was a pricey, AGM style battery. We' d already run Dempster Highway in Inuvik to Canada, which is not quite as rough as Dalton Highway in Alaska. But it tore up his battery. I don't remember the brand, and hesitate to guess, but the problem he ran into was no one in the state carried that brand of "car" battery. We were told it was the most popular brand in truck batteries--I mean real trucks, not pick-ups--and especially by trucks used on Dalton Highway--because it would withstand the rigors of the road. So my friend's problem was rather unusual. The company stood behind the battery to the extent that they reimbursed him for a different brand battery so he wouldn't have to wait until return to the lower 48 to replace the battery. That was pretty darned customer-oriented of them.
Bottom line: Pick a battery, any battery generally recognized for quality, and if you are hard on it (rock crawling isn't hard on batteries; overlanding is), go the extra cost of an AGM battery.