Battery choice?

[trukman1]

I'm going to throw this out here just to give a another perspective. My son is in the military. When he was an infantryman in Iraq he said the vehicles (HumVees) had Optima batteries and they never had a problem. Now stateside, he works in vehicle maintenance and said the Optimas that used to be made in the USA were great but then Optima moved their production to Mexico and they've had nothing but problems from them ever since.
I just replaced a Walmart battery (5 years old) in a van I bought from a friend and went with a Die Hard AGM battery from Sears. They had the best price I could find for that vehicle when compared to auto stores (plus they gave me $20 off for points.)
I gave my '67 to my son that used to sit for months and would start when it was so cold even my new vehicles wouldn't start. It's battery was a Duralast battery that we still have. Don't know how old it is but it's OLD! Eventually developed a short in the wire that ran to the interior light. Before I found the short (it was in the dead of winter) I installed a battery disconnect. The type that mounts to the battery post and the other end mounts to the cable with a screw knob on top. I also did this so I could disconnect the battery then chain the hood in a way that made it harder to steal without a wrecker.
Kind of getting off topic but thought it might be worth passing on.

 

[rt66paul]

You can buy a solar battery tender that plugs into your cigarette lighter, just leave it on the dash. It should keep enough juice in a battery to be able to start the truck and if almost fully charged, it will slow charge to top it off. You can buy one on ebay for less than $20

 

[rpcraft]

I'm going to throw this out here just to give a another perspective. My son is in the military. When he was an infantryman in Iraq he said the vehicles (HumVees) had Optima batteries and they never had a problem. Now stateside, he works in vehicle maintenance and said the Optimas that used to be made in the USA were great but then Optima moved their production to Mexico and they've had nothing but problems from them ever since.
I just replaced a Walmart battery (5 years old) in a van I bought from a friend and went with a Die Hard AGM battery from Sears. They had the best price I could find for that vehicle when compared to auto stores (plus they gave me $20 off for points.)
I gave my '67 to my son that used to sit for months and would start when it was so cold even my new vehicles wouldn't start. It's battery was a Duralast battery that we still have. Don't know how old it is but it's OLD! Eventually developed a short in the wire that ran to the interior light. Before I found the short (it was in the dead of winter) I installed a battery disconnect. The type that mounts to the battery post and the other end mounts to the cable with a screw knob on top. I also did this so I could disconnect the battery then chain the hood in a way that made it harder to steal without a wrecker.
Kind of getting off topic but thought it might be worth passing on.

Gotta have a lot of anti-theft deterrents for the squares now days... Mine's gonna be rigged like Furios'a rig in Mad Max, lol.

 

[Chevynut46]

I personally run yellow top optima batteries in my truck.. I have read quite a bit about how odyssey batteries are way better by design but cost significantly more than an optima.. I currently have a red top optima that is almost 12 years old and still going strong ( I'm assuming this was pre mexico battery?), and an 8 year old yellow top that's starting to die in my camaro