Which optima should i get?

My battery will not hold a charge if it sits while i'm at school, if it sits longer then two weeks then the battery ends up dead and i need to get it jumped, and it will last while i drive it daily, but i need to have it be reliable while it's not running everyday. i'm thinking it's a dead cell or something, the battery was replaced two years ago and is i believe an interstate?

My current mods on the electrical system aren't that taxing, i have HIDs in the fogs, a pair of Hella 500s and an aftermarket head unit, but it will be getting more taxing as i plan to add an OBA system, HIDs in the head lights, and a 1000w sound kicker sound system. I have done the big three upgrade.

I was wondering what battery will best benefit me, the Red, yellow or blue?

Thanks,
Justin

From personal experience, go with a YellowTop. BlueTops are for marine use, primarily, so don't go with one of those. RedTops are designed for harsh starting environments, aka cold winters, hot summers, etc etc. YellowTops have the deepest cycling, therefore heavy loads = not a problem for these guys. I have a RedTop, cus like an idiot I listened to an airhead at AutoZone who told me I didn't need a YellowTop for my 2000W sound system, and now I'm paying for it. I've had to buy HIDs to get rid of my dimming headlights, and even still, once I hit 38 out of 62 volume on my HU, my voltage drops horrifically. YellowTops are designed for heavy loading, and from the sounds of it, that's most definitely the route you want to go, IMO. I have also done the Big3 Upgrade and only got a few more clicks out of my volume, I forgot to mention that.

thanks for the reply, I was thinking along the same lines, however does anyone know what Cold Cranking amps i need to start the truck?

97sprt4x4 said:

thanks for the reply, I was thinking along the same lines, however does anyone know what Cold Cranking amps i need to start the truck?

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Here's Optima's website, should be a good place for starters.
http://www.optimabatteries.com/optima_products/yellowtop/specs.php

I did some other looking and found that ~350-450CCA is about the minimum for a fourbanger, so the D51 and D51R are out of the question. I did some snooping and saw that you're from NJ, so obviously it gets much colder up there than it does in good ol GA. I will tell you this though. I lived in CT for a year with the military and I had an Optima RedTop 34/78 and had zero issues for cranking. I myself would get the best of both worlds if I was you, the D34/78. You have the highest specs out of everything, four posts, and it's only $199.99 at Summit
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ULT-9014-045/
which honestly sounds like a lot, but that's what you gotta do when you upgrade anything, go with the good stuff At least you don't have to go with a Kinetik battery, those suckers run $350+ All in all, $200 is about as cheap as you'll find one of these suckers, so what's the extra ~$30-50 for over 100CCAs and 100CAs more than the step down Optima? That's my opinion, for ya sir.

ShadowRaven said:

I myself would get the best of both worlds if I was you, the D34/78. You have the highest specs out of everything, four posts, and it's only $199.99 at Summit
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ULT-9014-045/

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This is actually the battery i was looking at getting, my only question is.... what do you do with the other posts... and where do you get the posts for them.... :scratch: I've been looking all over, and i can get one locally
At Autozone for only $201 which is cool, but i still have no idea how to use the side terminals altho i can think of a lot of good wires sitting in my engine bay that could go there and clean it up.

97sprt4x4 said:

This is actually the battery i was looking at getting, my only question is.... what do you do with the other posts... and where do you get the posts for them.... :scratch: I've been looking all over, and i can get one locally
At Autozone for only $201 which is cool, but i still have no idea how to use the side terminals altho i can think of a lot of good wires sitting in my engine bay that could go there and clean it up.

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The other posts are termed as GM posts. I don't know much about GM vehicles, myself, but from what I understand, the way they situation the battery makes for the use of side terminal batteries rather than top mount (commonly referred to as SAE posts). You don't really have to do anything with them if you don't want to, they actually come with little plastic plug type dealeys that seal em right up. Or, if you felt so inclined, you could buy some GM posts like so
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&source=hp&q=gm+battery+posts&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=3897406223547539882&ei=gF0gS6_VCcG0tgfi-fSbCg&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CB4Q8wIwBA#ps-sellers
and then away you go. Be careful though, I had side posts, but the shortest one that I got in my three pack from Stinger was still a little too long, so it caused some problems. My headlights were hooked up to this terminal up until recently, and it took me man months before I figured out why my lights would turn on and off over bumps. If the side post cannot screw in fully, then the connection can potentially slide back and forth sideways, causing an interruption in the circuit, which was happening with my lights. So I promptly removed the sidepost terminals and went to this configuration instead, which is much more efficient IMO.

Hope all this helps ya

ShadowRaven said:

If the side post cannot screw in fully, then the connection can potentially slide back and forth sideways, causing an interruption in the circuit, which was happening with my lights

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This seems like a terrible design then... Trust GM... But i think i may try to get it to work for my cheapo air horn, and my Hella's and my other incidentals that i have strapped to the battery to clean up all the little wires running all over the place.

Thanks for the help! i'll be getting my battery after the holidays.

Justin

97sprt4x4 said:

This seems like a terrible design then... Trust GM... But i think i may try to get it to work for my cheapo air horn, and my Hella's and my other incidentals that i have strapped to the battery to clean up all the little wires running all over the place.

Thanks for the help! i'll be getting my battery after the holidays.

Justin

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Haha, no doubt man. Glad I could help!

I traded my buddy unnecesarryly big battery for his yellow top. I put it in my 97 5.0 with no problems, and i run a big system on it too... Go with the yellow top for sure