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What battery do I need.

quade

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Im swapping a 93 350 into my 1987 Jimmy and I have to pick up new wires for the starter to battery and for the ground but I'm not sure of what cranking amps or anything really I should get and the guy at autozone told me just get whatever it had before but I received the truck w/o a battery. Can anyone help me out on what battery would be good? I know it came with a side post because the negative wire is still in but I want to get a top post to make it a bit farther away from the mud and dirt.
 
If you aren't winching, run the smallest/cheapest battery that was used in these trucks. Off the top of my head I can't recall what was stock.

Batteries today are a crapshoot, no matter who's name is on it. I've gotten to the point that I'd rather buy what is cheapest and be happy I get ~5 years out of it, vs. buying a top dollar battery (*cough* Optima *cough*) and having it fail in the same amount of time.

If you winch or otherwise use the battery with the truck not running, a larger capacity battery (and deep cycle) is a good choice.

Pretty much any battery out there will crank the truck over, they need something on the order of 300A from what I've read, and most are around 750CCA in any case.

In my experience the side terminal batteries seem to better resist corrosion, but that may just be coincidence. Top post is a fair bit "safer" to run jumper cables off of though, since the terminals are much larger and less likely to allow the cables to jump off.
 
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