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Winching batteries???

A

apache

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Central coast of Kali
Do I really have to spend $230 for a Optima yellow top?? my winch will never see hard core extended duty dragging a vehicle through the rocks ,probably get used more around the ranch yanking buck brush out of the ground. Any reccomendations on anything else cheaper??
 
If you don't do a lot of winching, no you don't. I don't do a lot and I've never had any issues with my battery (non-optima). I do have a jell-cell battery tho. I'd just make sure you get a high rated battery no matter what you get.
 
Just keep your eyes out, I found both of my Red tops for less than $100.....combined.:D

CL rocks!
 
You really want a deep cycle.. winching is about reserve capacity..

AGM's are preferable over lead-acid, but obviously the costs go up...
 
Amoungst other short commings the Napa by me today while at work is pretty worthless. The Blazers battery died on Thanksgiving day, I asked for a specific part number off their and Exides Orbital battery website and they couldent find it. Had to go to Kragen and got a Orbital select which was on sale from $185 down to $125. Theres even a write up and test on Rockcrawler that earned their blessing after abusing it. Best I could find locally,hope it holds up.
I try:doah:... really............. but give up usually and buy online.
 
Are you going to add this as an AUX battery? If so i recommend an interstate deep cycle marine battery. You can also use it for all non stock accessories.
 
I think I might eventually. Im annoyed the Orbital listed by them for my 84 is a group 75 which is actually pretty small and the other is a 78 which is 10 1/8" long and would have fit in the stock tray, It has more CCA and reserve also.
 
get 2 group 31red top optimas and call it a day. or if you feel rich go with group 31 Odessy's.
 
I think Optima's are over-rated. I'm on my second pair of Duralast Gold's from Autozone, the first set lasted around 10 years and they had a hard life. Spent the last 3-4 years in a trail-only vehicle that would sit for weeks or months at a time and used the winch on the trail. 78Buford is also using these same batteries. I bought the pair of 900-ish CCA dual post batteries for what one Optima usually goes for.
 
I run two marine exide orbitals. Same thing as a blue top Optima. I got mine at Kragen. Search my name and battery relocation and my thread has prices and part numbers.

Dik
 
I agree with 4X4 High, purchase a deep cycle marine battery. If you run a regular automotive battery down from winching too much, the internal plates will warp or disconnect from its cell. This effectively kills the battery. In fact the higher the CCA rating the more ( and thinner ) plates.
A deep cycle marine battery uses thicker but fewer plates in each cell. They are designed to run down to zero voltage and completely recharge without damage. I was told a few years ago that the plates have additional non conductive supports to additionally protect the cell plates.
The cost for a deep cycle battery is a little more than a regular automotive battery but signifficantly cheaper than an Optima battery.
 
A few searches will reveal many in-depth threads pertaining to battery myths, CCA hype, etc diatribes on my part over the years in here... lot of hocus-pokus being doled out by the battery companies in the last 20 yrs, in advertising and plate construction... heck, they invented the "hybrid" term....
 
While I don't really disagree with some of the above statements regarding the deep cycles and others, from my experience you just don't need them.

I've been trailriding for 10 years and most winch pulls are probably 10 feet or less, so even with the engine not running it's not enough to pull down the battery enough so you can't at least restart the engine. I've maybe seen one or two winch pulls in that time where they actually had to stop winching for a minute or two to let the alternator charge the batteries, and only once where the dual batteries on a rig were completely drained but the engine stopped running on a trail several miles from pavement and he was using the winch and the starter to help move the rig around when we were having trouble pulling him over a couple of hours (that was a long night...trail was covered in snow and ice).
 
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