Battery Recommendations Requested (Jeep)

[Robert Bills]

The Optima red top in my Jeep CJ-7 is toast - won't hold a charge after only 22 months. My prior red top only lasted two years as well, although the one before that lasted almost 5 years.

My local jeep shop won't sell Optima batteries any longer. Their experience is the same as mine - the early Optimas were great, recent Optimas are junk.

The obvious choices for offroad batteries appear to be Odessy and the new Sear Diehard Platinum (rebadged Odessy), also the Exide spiral battery.

What is everyone's preference? Brand? Model? Vendor with the best price (in SoCal)?

(PS - Yes, I did read every post regarding batteries before I posted this.)

[Gear]

Well I am in the same position as you probably know. From reading other forums and this one. Most seem to be going with the Sears Diehard Platinum. At least it has a 4 year warranty. I will be interested in see what you pick.

[Beowulf]

I had to make the same decision and went with Dual P1s in the Kilby Dual Battery tray. Of course they are relatively new, but so far so good.

[goodtimes]

I have a pair of diehard platinums (one is a deep cycle) stuffed into the Kilby tray in my TJ. They don't fit to well (just a hair big...).

I have had them in for maybe a year....the starting battery is doing fine, the deep cycle that I am using as a house battery just isn't holding a charge like it used to (either that, or my fridge has turned into a power hog...which is a possibility that I have not ruled out).

[Desolation]

I too had the Red Top fail, twice in under a year each.
The dealer gave me a Blue Top and I have yet to have a problem.
Not saying it is the solution as it has been only a little over a year thus far, but that is longer then ether of that the last two Red Tops went...

[Martyn]

We use DEKA batteries and have had very good luck with them. East Penn DEKA has their own smelter and recycles lead from old batteries. I like that from an environmental viewpoint, when the price of lead spiked it also kept the price of the batteries relatively low.

The issue I see with spiral batteries is that you can't get as much lead into them as you can with traditional plates. Battery power is directly related to the amount of lead in the battery.

[Mike S]

Ditto on the DEKA batteries. I am running Deka AGMs in my 80, in my Airstream (banks of 6V GC batteries), and shortly will have them in my Ford F350 - assuming I can get a fit for the duals. They also COST LESS THAN OPTIMA BATTERIES.

I used Optima Yellow Tops in a couple of my Landcruisers, but the quality seems to have gone out the window. My Optima distributor recommended Dekas. Been happy for a couple of years now. Generally, the more a battery weighs, the better, and these have a lot of lead and are shock resistant.