the great him
Elite Member
i have had several optimas, and my last two, a yellow -currently in my runner, and a red top -currently in my red 85 pickup have been kick a$$, they have never let me down, i have run the yellow top down several times. once by running all my lights on my truck, forgetting they were on and letting the truck just idle in the snow to keep the kids and wife warm while i was out helping a set up camp, and the truck just died -the lights drained the battery so low it killed the truck(over 1100w of light) and then shut every thing electrical off that i could think of and waited about 15min and the truck fired right back up. another time i let the truck sit for about 3 weeks with the GPS, UHF, VHF and CB/NOAA on, that thing was dead as dead, got a jump and drove it home about and hour away and never had an issue. the red top i have used idk how many times for winching and large electrical strains such as about 800w of lights for long periods of time and never had a single complaint.
one thing i will say about gel-cell batteries is they DO NOT like to be over charged, they are a 12v battery, they like to be charged at 12v, not 13.8-14.6 as most vehicle alternators do. if you are running a gel-cell of any type i recommend getting a voltage regulator(and a good quality marine one at that -about $80-100 for an adjustable regulator) to save your investment. before i had a VR i would go through optimas like crazy, about one every year or two, now i have had nothing but great times with them, and even harder usage out of them. just putting this out their for what its worth
one thing i will say about gel-cell batteries is they DO NOT like to be over charged, they are a 12v battery, they like to be charged at 12v, not 13.8-14.6 as most vehicle alternators do. if you are running a gel-cell of any type i recommend getting a voltage regulator(and a good quality marine one at that -about $80-100 for an adjustable regulator) to save your investment. before i had a VR i would go through optimas like crazy, about one every year or two, now i have had nothing but great times with them, and even harder usage out of them. just putting this out their for what its worth
