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Yellow Top or Red?????

LEEREED123

LEEREED123

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i just put on 5 KC Daylighters and am putting in 2 stereo amps. I've upgraded my alternator already.
which one should i go with, Optima red top or yellow top?:dunno:
 
Optima's site, and paperwork shows that after a 30 start attempt, the red tops power is better then a yellows. It's up to you, but I prefer the reds. I'm sure you can't go wrong with either one.

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wow, that graph makes the yellow look pretty lame. i've only heard good things, though.

my (N)everstart is unimpressive when the temp dips below 40, but otherwise is really decent. we don't get a lot of freezing weather here, so it's not a big deal.
 
the yellow tops are not made to be a starting battery i don't believe. i've heard that a few times.
 
txfiremank5 said:
Optima's site, and paperwork shows that after a 30 start attempt, the red tops power is better then a yellows. It's up to you, but I prefer the reds. I'm sure you can't go wrong with either one.

starter.RowPar.0005.ContentPar.0001.ColumnPar.0001.Image.0.0.gif
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what company makes "traditional". not the best but looks to be second. lmao j/k
 
A red top has more amps for starting but a yellow is a deep cycle battery that can withstand being drained down and recharged better and more often. As long as your not running an engine thats really hard to start (high compression big block) then a yellow is ok. A yellow is really nice for people who are hard on batterys or winch a lot. I got a red top only cause I got it off of bananablazer for cheap
 
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I have red tops in all my vehicles, and the best set up in your case is to run the yellow top.
 
Yep, agreed about the differences between the two. My guess is that for something like a trail only rig, that's not getting started as often as something that's driven a lot, a yellow might be the way to go. I would assume that it would suffer less from the dips in the charge when sitting. I figure with my K5 getting driven a lot, red would probably be fine. Especially when I swap into 2 red tops, and a bigger alt.

I'll be getting a second red top for the K5 when I get my winch. I'll probably take the red top out of my DD and use it in the K5, along with the one that's already in the K5, because they are about the same age. Then I'll just throw the new one on the DD.
 
txfiremank5 said:
Yep, agreed about the differences between the two. My guess is that for something like a trail only rig, that's not getting started as often as something that's driven a lot, a yellow might be the way to go. I would assume that it would suffer less from the dips in the charge when sitting. I figure with my K5 getting driven a lot, red would probably be fine. Especially when I swap into 2 red tops, and a bigger alt.

I'll be getting a second red top for the K5 when I get my winch. I'll probably take the red top out of my DD and use it in the K5, along with the one that's already in the K5, because they are about the same age. Then I'll just throw the new one on the DD.
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Not sure if I'm following the plan a 100% but, your winch should be hooked up to the yellow, deep cycle battery.
 
It is important to think about energy management. you don't want to be running all the lights and be drawing 100% of your alternators capacity and tapping into the battery as well for very long, otherwise you'll eventually end up shutting down. Plus, you'll be ruining your alternator in the process. I know that locally, here in Chattanooga, I've heard of shops that can re-wire old alternators to make them high capacity, say like going from a worn out 100 AMP re-wired to a robust 200 AMP. The cost is about $85 to $100, but takes a couple days. Knowing this, I'll never buy a POS auto zone alternator again.
It's just my opinion that I wouldn't recommend running in a way where I know that I am bleeding energy, you have to have excess power otherwise you are asking to get stranded.
 
interesting topic. I have only yellow tops. run one in the blazer, one in the suburban, and another for my nova. Have no issues with them at all. have had them for almost 6 years now.
 
Can you hook a red top and a yellow top inline? I was thinking about adding a 2nd battery when i get my stereo installed and since the red top is better for cranking and the yellow is a deep cycle...... or should I just stick to the same kind?
 
i know some people run a red and a yellow.

im debating about running 2 yellows or 1 red and 1 yellow in my diesel which will eventually get a winch and a decent stereo. any thoughts?
 
I read on a post somewhere here once that many people advise against red and yellow together. Call Optima and ask them, I'd be really interested to hear what they say. Thats what Manny would do! WWMD?!?!? lol
 
Inline is a troublesome term. If you mean that you want to run two batteries in parallel, then they should be they same. That also means they should be the same type, size, and age. And Optima says the same thing in print.

If you were to run a two battery 'system' in your vehicle there are several ways of doing it.

Running in parallel, as above is one way. This does nothing to prevent you from getting stranded with a dead battery, and is actually detrimental to the life of the battery and charging system.

The most popular here at CK5 is probably using a (Ford?) solenoid setup to separate the batteries. Better, but at some point you are still connecting the two batteries. The one 'good' battery, then suffers a spiked draw as that battery will naturally be attempting to 'charge' the drained battery despite the alternator.

Another closely related system is using isolators. This separates the batteries from each other all the time, and prevents 'backflow' from one battery to another. This protects both batteries, and prevents the alternator from working extra hard charging two batteries instead of one.

surepower.com and I think wrangler something something are good choices, I'll look up the second and edit my post in a couple...http://www.wranglernw.com/ that's the one.

Disclaimer - I have gathered my knowledge from a ton of reading on the subject over the past four years. I trust my info, but I'd hate to mislead anyone by coming off as an expert.
 
fireplug said:
Not sure if I'm following the plan a 100% but, your winch should be hooked up to the yellow, deep cycle battery.
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LOL, nope, you're not following.. ;) I will have two red tops when I go dual.

But, another option is for me to throw the red top from my K5 into my wifes DD, and get 2 new batts when I go dual. The red top in my K5, and my 97 are both about a year old (or so).
 
so with a diesel that will eventually get a winch, i should go dual yellow and not red?
 
muddybuddy said:
so with a diesel that will eventually get a winch, i should go dual yellow and not red?
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Hmmm I'm not sure, let's work this out together lol :D.

I'm diesel illiterate. Why do diesels use two batteries. Hmmm you've really got me thinking now why DO they use two? They are in parallel?

I assume that diesels come from the factory with their batteries isolated?

The simple answer however, is to use the yellow tops. The yellow tops are considered a dual purpose, starting/deep cycling battery.

I look forward to figuring this out!
 
I'd run dual red tops with a diesel... As mentioned, deep cycle batteries last a lot longer with smaller loads on them, but can't put out nearly as much amperage as a conventional battery.

Diesels are very high compression engines, which are hard to turn over, but also need to be spun relatively fast to start. That means you need to draw a lot of amperage really fast, which means you need two batteries connected in parallel (positive to positive, negative to negative) which keeps it 12 volts, but allows for a lot more amperage for the starter to draw from.
 
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