Optima battery Upgrade

[03Alerosil]

My battery was starting to fail on me and being winter is coming I decided to replace it. Used my discount where I work and got the best battery you can buy there. What a difference. Subs sound even louder and hit harder. Optima yellow top. 34/78 series. It is about an inch too long for the tray so I made a small modification to my battery box by cutting off the end of the tray closest to the headlight just wide enough to clear the battery. It can twist a little bit in the tray so i'm using a roll of tape to temporarily hold it still just in case. I'm going to have to figure out something more permanent. All in all I'm very happy with the battery and I highly recommend an Optima or any AGM style battery. huge upgrade. Even added some life to my old Alero.

[03Alerosil]

I thought about running my amp power wire right off the positive top post terminal and running a secondary charge wire to the alternator off it as well.

I also thought about running a secondary ground off the negative side to the block and the body. Any thoughts on this?

[tw0123]

I've done that ;)

I have a second battery in the trunk so I've run an additional power and ground to the trunk, then i have a power to the alt, ground to the frame and to the motor (on the engine hoist point)

[03Alerosil]

Cool. That's some thick cable. I see you have the 75/25 model which actually got a in the tray.

[tw0123]

Yeah i used a 0 gauge cable to run the wires to the trunk and for the extras... The optima runs the car while my second battery runs my stereo and air ride compressors...

[03Alerosil]

What would you recommend I use for the charge cable and the extra grounds I want to do? 4 gauge? My amp is 800 watts and I use 8 gauge for that. I was thinking of running 4 gauge to my alternator and using a 40 or 50 amp fuse inline

[tw0123]

4 Gauge should be plenty for what you're running... :)

[03Alerosil]

Cool. Thanks. I planned on keep the factory cables hooked up as well

[tw0123]

Definitely do... What you're talking about adding is called the big 3 upgrade in audio terms...

Battery to alternator positive
Battery to chassis ground
Battery to engine block ground

You're adding an extra length of positive to keep the battery well charged and 2 extra lengths of grounding to make sure everything doesn't short out...

It's highly recommended to put an inline fuse between the battery and alternator length just for safety measures as well... If you're still questioning anything, there's a ton on YouTube how to's lol

[03Alerosil]

Good information. I'll have to do this sometime when I have the extra cash. I'll either run a 40amp mega fuse or inline fuse to the alternator

[AleroB888]

I've used nothing but Optima red-tops for about the last 10 years. Using 3 of them right now. I just replaced the one in my '99, it lasted 6 years. It's trunk mounted with a stock gauge cable going direct to the starter, and it saw a lot of abuse. They are generally lighter than a conventional battery of similar rating, or at least used to be.

One or two I had replaced under warranty.

[03Alerosil]

Optima batteries are really good. My yellowtop is considerably heavier than my old conventional battery but from what I can tell it packs more of a punch

[AleroCzak]

I had to replace my battery recently, and the one I replaced appeared to be older than my car.