Thread: Auxiliary Battery Issues

Not where I was sent.

Originally Posted by Eevo

i used to be a big fan of yellowtops but ive been disappointed in the last few years, since they moved production to mexico

An acquaintance told me Optima's quality suffered when Johnson Controls bought them. The acquaintance is employed by Johnson Controls.

Originally Posted by Russrobe

Is it 20mm taller though? Do the Optima dimensions include the terminal height? If not they're identical.

D34 Optimas are 199mm at the tip of the terminal(measured).

In the D2 twin battery mod, where the single N70ZZ is replaced for two D34s, the 200mm terminal height is critical .. so in some situations it makes all the difference.
Have a dead battery with a 200mm body, 220mm terminal, height and it simply wouldn't fit under the bonnet properly. I couldn't see any way to make the dual battery tray any lower.

No problem cranking the Td5 over many times off a fresh new D34 yellow either.
The CCA value isn't all that different to the redtop D34 anyhow.
800CCA red, and 750CCA yellow in D34 spec.

Also .. I'm a bit confused as to the wholesaling bizo.
Whenever I search for(or used to search for) Optima battery specs(when I was fabricating the dual battery tray), the main website for Optima batteries used to take me to Century Batteries, who seem to deal in Optimas.
So I assumed that it was Century that was importing them.

I had(still have) a Century battery as my starter in my D1. Failed just prior to 12month(36 month warranty). Bought from Supercheap.
Supercheap did everything they could to avoid honouring the warranty.
Luckily for me the last time I took it in to the store the Century rep was there at the time, and I dealt with him directly. He immediately said it's dead(possibly dropped a cell), and worked out with the store the procedure for the warranty claim.
I just walked out with my new(same spec) battery. So far so good(6 months) but I'm not holding my breath.

SSB do a nice AGM that fits perfectly in the Optima space (and has 5ah extra capacity).

A Din LN2 also fits.

I’m doing quite a bit of battery based work on vehicles and camper at the moment, this has proven entertainingly expensive!

I only found out about SSB batteries AFTER I finalised my bros dual battery install.
I commented to him that I eventually found out about this SSB branded batteries.
He tells me they've been using them for years in his trucks(back in the day) and had good reliability from them.
He currently has one in his motorbike.
His local outlet is only a few minutes from his place.

Hey Tombie, can you let me know which of the SSB batteries will fit the traxide tray as I am just about to order a system to fit my D4 and have read this thread about the Optimas just in time. I would prefer to follow your lead and move away from the Optima now but want to know that an alternative will fit OK. cheers, Jack.

going my the photo they are different sizes?

Hi,
I put one of these in when I fitted my Traxide DBS to my D4
I bought it from my local battery guy at Capalaba. Local Batteries. It was quite a bit cheaper at the time than the Optima.
ORB34DC-48 BATTERY

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