Who Knows Batterys??

[qecluke]

Hey Guys, Need some help next week I am getting a custom made tray to house my second battery under my tray. Due to how bloody hard it is going to be to get it out for any reason I want to make sure I put the right battery in from the start.

Basically I want a 105-120 AH low maintenance battery definitely sealed...

Anyone got any recommendations what to use, brands, types...

cheers

 

[Old.Tony]

Sounds to me like an AGM is the order of the day. While I'd recommend a spiral-wound unit like the Optima D31A (because I have one and it's bloody bulletproof) but the biggest in that range is 75Ah.

FullRiver make a range that reaches those sorts of Ah capacity and you'll find them used in a lot of caravans. Chinese-manufactured, starting to get a reasonable name, designed for deep cycling. They respond better to better chargers of course but they aren't finnicky like gel batteries. Watch it when you go super-capacity - they're bloody big batteries, and very heavy. The D31A in my caravan is somewhere around the mid-30kgs.

 

[boostin_7]

I bought a cheapish 100ah AGM made by giant power.
So far its been very reliable for the last 2 years, although I never let it get that depleted & keep it on a charge & maintain staged charger.

 

[qecluke]

So it looks like the Agm is the go then. I'd rather get it right from the start. Are all AGM batterys the same?? You pay for the name I guess?

 

[mike1303]

As a side note,
Couldn't help but laugh to myself when old mate at work the other day tell me how he's bought this and that for his hilux from Arb... Including the deep cycle under the bonnet!

 

[Old.Tony]

I was in at ARB the other day and they are now selling deep cycle and hybrid AGMs (DC&SLI in one package but NOT spiral wound).

AGM is absolutely the way to go for deep cycle applications. Brand is something but not everything - the Optima series batteries cost a bloody fortune and you really don't NEED to have something that bulletproof so if you find an alternative that has reasonable feedback (try "fullriver review" in Google, for example) then there's no reason to assume buying one is a bad call.

 

[sparra04]

i have 2x 55a/h optima agm spirals
$399 each when i bought them
i think there down to bout $300 each now
but there worth it for piece of mind