Fare thee well ole' friend: Ode to a 'Battery'

rigtec

rigtec

New member
Hi '4Runner tech team',

It's hard to believe that my new 4RUNNER LIMITED is now three years old; and so is the "Un-Excellent" Panasonic battery that Toyota just... through in it before it could leave the assembly plant! I spent some time today filtering through just tons of car/suv/truck battery ad's... and ALL claiming to be the absolute, 'Very Best' battery on the ENTIRE PLANET! Well I find NONE to be the (QUOTE) absolute very best... (all things being equal), but it's a matter of what will meet the demands of your particular vehicle or application at that particular time. What I was looking for was a combination of, Value, a High CCA (Cold Cranking Amperage) rating, and a Minimum need for modification e.g., fits in the stock battery's small footprint; here's what I came up with...

The Optima Red, Yellow, and Blue tops seemed to have the highest CCA ratings for the 24 and 27 size groups; which was 750 and a three yr full warranty. I believe the Dura-last and Die-Hard Platinum came in second with a 710 CCA battery and comparable exchange policy, and then things just went downhill from there. I fooled around with Amazon's batteries for a while... the most expensive batteries that I saw (over $250 dollars) came with free shipping, where as the cheapest batteries were okay (@$150-$170) but made you pay the shipping; which was very high like $40 or $50 bucks easy! Then I stumbled upon this one: The ODYSSEYEXTREME series. They had an AGM (Deep Cycle) sized 24/27 group footprint, yielding an 900 CCA power rating, a four yr warranty and FREE S&H!:

ODYSSEY Batteries - 35-PC1400T-A

The link above includes the description of the battery. The one below goes into greater detail of the way it's built, it's capabilities, and the warranty details; just hit policies, then see "Limits of responsibility" (it's very small but you can see it). http://www.odysseybatteries.com/docs/US-EXT-PG-003_1014.pdf I've already pulled the trigger on this battery, guess it'll be here in a couple of days. I'll report back if there are any problems... hope someone here finds this post helpful! Chow!
 
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I got more than 8 years out of my Panasonic too. It was still starting strong when I replaced it too so it probably had a couple years left. If you want to talk about crap batteries, look no further than Optima.
 
My 99 lasted me until 07 when I replaced it because I was afraid it was going to leave me stranded. It past all the tests we had at the time (hydrometer, load, etc). Who knows how far/long it would have gone.

I'm running a dual Odyssey battery system right now and trying to do some extensive research of why one of them failed. If you can [MENTION=83083]rigtec[/MENTION], call Odyssey and explain your situation. I learned a few things about our charging system and the requirement of these batteries. Apparently, our charging system isn't up to par for most, if not all, deep cycle dry batteries. I'll start a more informative thread when I have the time to go through it all.

Another side note, as far as I recall, Odyssey batteries are also made in the same factory as the Die Hard Platinums. Same casing, same internals, same specs. You may want to look into that if its not too late.
 
Optima + Advance Auto + online order.

Search a bit and you will find a discount code. The Optima is an exceptional battery IMO and experience.

And top tip - if you buy a deep cycle and are not really deep cycle abusing it you are ahead of the game NOT going with a deep cycle from the point of longevity. I researched it in detail when I bought my Optima for my prior 4Runner thinking deep cycle = better. Not globally true.
 
Is size the reason you didn't move to a group 34 like others tend to? Is there an advantage to choosing one or the other?
 
Blitzkrieg said:
Optima + Advance Auto + online order.

Search a bit and you will find a discount code. The Optima is an exceptional battery IMO and experience.

And top tip - if you buy a deep cycle and are not really deep cycle abusing it you are ahead of the game NOT going with a deep cycle from the point of longevity. I researched it in detail when I bought my Optima for my prior 4Runner thinking deep cycle = better. Not globally true.
Click to expand...

I'm going to guess that your experience with Optima was several years ago. Optima has lost a lot of market share since they were picked up by Interstate Batteries back in 2005? I think? Anyway, they started to manufacture them through a different factory (I believe the production went from the US to Mexico). The quality has severely dropped since that change. I remember warranty issues and so many problems when we carried them at High Tech.
 
Ducmonsta said:
"My 99 lasted me until 07 when I replaced it because I was afraid it was going to leave me stranded..."
Click to expand...

Hi Duc,

I wasn't experiencing any starting or charging system problems. I was just being cautious and my thinking is... the kind of money I spent on the charging system ALONE... just to insure that the truck is as reliable as can be, it'd be a shame to get stuck (Sunday 4 AM, S.E."Bloods-Crip" Rd, NO cell Signal...) because of a 'foreseeable weakness' in the 'Charging system' chain, lol!
 
Ducmonsta said:
My 99 lasted me until 07 when I replaced it because I was afraid it was going to leave me stranded. It past all the tests we had at the time (hydrometer, load, etc). Who knows how far/long it would have gone.

I'm running a dual Odyssey battery system right now and trying to do some extensive research of why one of them failed. If you can [MENTION=83083]rigtec[/MENTION], call Odyssey and explain your situation. I learned a few things about our charging system and the requirement of these batteries. Apparently, our charging system isn't up to par for most, if not all, deep cycle dry batteries. I'll start a more informative thread when I have the time to go through it all.

Another side note, as far as I recall, Odyssey batteries are also made in the same factory as the Die Hard Platinums. Same casing, same internals, same specs. You may want to look into that if its not too late.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure you run the same dual PC-1200s as I do. I picked up an odyssey charger (triple bank) and plan to charge both up before and after each trip and probably once per month to try and mitigate the shortcomings of the stock charging system. I think/hope it will be enough to keep the batteries in healthy form.
 
It's my belief these days that batteries are the luck-of-the-draw.

I could go on and on with my experiences, but they would likely sound like many others.

Relevant to batteries, I believe 2 things:

- Todays batteries are poorly made for the most part
- Todays vehicles have an abundance of current-robbing gadgetry

Put the 2 of these together and gone are the days of a battery lasting 8-10 yrs. like they use to.
 
cjacob316 said:
Is size the reason you didn't move to a group 34 like others tend to? Is there an advantage to choosing one or the other?
Click to expand...

Hi cjacob,

I assumed you were addressing me because you didn't quote anyone specific... The reason I didn't go with the 34 group was just for convenience; too lazy to fit the wiring to the new terminal positioning. The advantage of going BIGGER would be that you can squeeze more Cranking Amps in the larger casing, so finding a say... 1100 CCA battery in a 34 size group will be much easier than to find it in a 24f; which likely does not exist, but just for example sake!

Cheers
 
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rigtec said:
Hi cjacob,

I assumed you were addressing me because you didn't quote anyone specific... The reason I didn't go with the 34 group was just for convenience; too lazy to fit the wiring to the new terminal positioning. The advantage of going BIGGER would be that you can squeeze more Cranking Amps in the larger casing, so finding a say... 1100 CCA battery in a 34 size group will be much easier than to find it in a 24f; which likely does not exist, but just for example sake!

Cheers
Click to expand...

Yes I was addressing you, my apologies for not being specific. I have plans to upgrade to a deep cycle when I pull the trigger on a fridge and maybe a winch. I was set on a 34, you know bigger better, but given that my load requirements wouldn't really be that high, I thought maybe it may be better to go with a smaller battery and maybe my alternator would have a chance to actually charge it. I'm not experienced at all when it comes to these things and you seem to be very experienced so I was wondering what your opinion would be on the matter.
 
cjacob316 said:
Yes I was addressing you, my apologies for not being specific. I have plans to upgrade to a deep cycle when I pull the trigger on a fridge and maybe a winch. I was set on a 34, you know bigger better, but given that my load requirements wouldn't really be that high, I thought maybe it may be better to go with a smaller battery and maybe my alternator would have a chance to actually charge it. I'm not experienced at all when it comes to these things and you seem to be very experienced so I was wondering what your opinion would be on the matter.
Click to expand...

Well there are a few 'Guidelines' to follow... If you need MORE Raw capacity for running accessories like, a Frig, winch, lighting, TV... and your going camping, chances are the vehicle will spend a lot of the time Shut-down! In a case like that your demands will likely be to need 'More Capacity' e.g., A great potential for High Current/Amperage to be used. If however, you don't plan to use your vehicle to run accessories with the truck off... but still need to run, a refrig, light bars, occasional winching... with the truck running, than you'll have a Higher demand for 'Rapid Recovery'!

This is because even though the truck is running the whole time, this places a High demand on your charging system e.g., alternator, the wiring system between the battery and chassis, fenders, engine etc; at this point the ' Alternator ONLY' feeds your electrical system and accessories, the battery... 'Just storage'. So you'd want to beef up these components to handle the increased demand placed on them by the aftermarket accessories. I think this thread will help to explain a few of these things with much greater detail and clarity: http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/172070-4runner-alternator-upgrade-gen-5-a.html

Cheers!
 
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do yourself a favor and go with an Sears DieHard Platinum aka Odyssey. I have had nothing but issues with my past yellow and red tops especially under load with a winch/lights/etc
 
The battery in my FJ was 7 years old and still going strong when I traded it in. Every winter I kept waiting for it to die but it just wouldn't.
 
rigtec said:
Hi '4Runner tech team',


.....I'll report back if there are any problems... hope someone here finds this post helpful! Chow!
Click to expand...

Chow? like food or do you mean Ciao?

The word "ciao" (/ˈtʃaʊ/; Italian pronunciation: [ˈtʃaːo]) is an informal salutation in the Italian language that is used for both "hello", "hi" and "goodbye".
 
My last 3 optima red tops all failed within 1-2 years. Each time one of the six cells went bad. I kept getting them replaced under warranty until I got rid of the car. BTW, this was in a regular DD car with no extra loads or etc. I don't know much about their SLA offerings since they do not have a huge market share in the US but Panasonic is the best when it comes to li-ion and I would much rather have a made in Japan SLA product over something slapped together in Mexico.

IMO just stay away from ANYTHING made by Johnson Controls. They have ~80% market share in the US and are behind almost every brand that you will find. Most of these products will only vary by the case and warranty. They have also shifted most of the production to Mexico and the quality control really seems to be lacking.

Whats left in the US is East Penn (Deka, Car Quest, some O'Reily), Enersys (Odyssey, Diehard platinum), and Exide (in BK right now)
 
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