What do yall think of this battery?

[JeepPhisherman]

Specs on the red- (top) and blue- (bottom) top batteries from Exide:

BCI Group Size..Part Number..CCA at 0° F..CA at 32° F..RC min @ 25 Amps..Dimensions (in.)
34T.................ORB34M-36.......770...........950....................95.................10-1/8x7x8
34...................ORB34DC-36.....750...........925....................100................10-1/8x7x8

[CRaSHnBuRN]

got a pic?

I looked, but I don't have a decent one. You can kind of see it here



Basically I ran a plate on top of the battery with two bolts running through the holes pictured in Ed's post to sandwich the battery in place. It made for a very simple yet very strong mount. I'll be doing a similar setup in a few weeks when I go to dual batteries in the back of my 4runner, and will try to get better pics then.

BTW, I also think JR with the bronco buggy on pirate did something similar to this on his last buildup

[JeepPhisherman]

So that's just the standard orbital eh?

[CRaSHnBuRN]

Are you running one of the auto orbital selects? I picked up at blue top orbital from Academy yesterday and got a decent deal on it, but I might take it back and try to find a marine starting orbital or just stick with the orbital select g78.

I'm running whatever Napa sells. I can't remember if napa sells three versions or this battery like optima does (red, yellow, blue), but I always thought the ones I got were the yellow ones (like in the picture above)

[CRaSHnBuRN]

So that's just the standard orbital eh?

pretty much so. I wish I still had a hook up at napa, the one on my buggy only cost me 80 bucks

[JeepPhisherman]

You can finagle(sp?) them down close to that...

[CRaSHnBuRN]

well, that was around three to four years ago, and my hook up was the napa owner's son. The last time I bought one of these batteries I payed alot more, but I still don't think it was near the prices you have listed

[DRAGOONRANCH]

Anybody know what size the holes are, if they are big enough, I would like to take some solid stock and drill and tap one end for a bolt. I have been looking for some good batteries to put on the GN for the winch.

[CRaSHnBuRN]

If I remember correctly you can fit 5/16" in there with no problem. A 3/8" bolt fits, but its a tight fit and you may have to file a little of the plastic to get it to fit, but not enough to hurt the battery.


What I plan to do is weld a coupler nut to the bottom plate, sticking up into cavities between the battery cell. Then I will simply thread a bolt in from the top, similar to what I did before. If you can wait a few weeks, I'll try to get my dual battery setup installed and I'll take pics and measurements

[JeepPhisherman]

I looked around at some more batteries today. NTB has the group 78 Orbitals, but they want $184 for them and won't price match batteries. Sam's Club has Red/Yellow/Blue top Optimas, the Reds were $138, the Yellows were $155 or so. I couldn't find anyone to ask about price matching. I still haven't made it to a Napa yet, since there aren't any good auto places near me because no one in my part of town works on their own vehicles.

I'd really like to find a red top Exide just becasue using a boat battery that is meant to be slowly drained and re-charged all the time kind of worries me, and I think I could get the red top for $30 cheaper or so.