Even after a several hour charge it's hard to start WHEN it does so battery time and guess it's back to one since the Orbital gels are pricey IF you can even find em. So, is Optima the cats meow or will a good ol Auto-zone get it done and no 3 lb stuff for me cos I need the ballast and after mounting up my new ft and rear Hoosiers, it's track time and a 6.0 pass...........

Optima's are great as long as you keep them charged. I have seen many go over 10 years...

Good question, I am in the same boat. My optima gave up after 11 years and I will need a new battery this spring. I have heard Optimas are not that good anymore since the moved production to Mexico.

Had great luck over the years with Interstate batteries. My battery searches have started and ended with them

Costco RY and Marine battery(now Interstate brand) work well for me in our type of cars, I bought a pair of Everready batteries(made by Johnson control CO) from Walmart my 2006 Ram 3500 truck last winter when it got down to 5 F above here and they are still sitting in the shop waiting for me to swap them into the truck, maybe this winter I'll install them when it won't start again without a battery charger on them below 10F

One of my blue tops is 10 1/2 years old. The other one bought at the same time lasted a week, and never could receive a full charge. It's replacement lasted barely 3 years and a couple weeks. The Interstate I replaced it with is 7 1/2 years old. They've gotten LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of use in my boat when I go fishing almost every day.

Thankxxx guys and one of mine is from 06 and not sure on the other so ya, got my moneys worth and maybe just one will help it hook since two seemed better in that area........

Seems to me I've been told optima is now made in Mexico and suck, mine lasted a year in a street strip 10.20 car now run a battery from deka I believe called intimidator and love it. Circle track guy turned me on to it, absorbs vibration really well. My dad has had an interstate for 7 years now and no issue too

Optima is made in Mexico but they do not suck. I think they went through a rough patch when they moved production but that was a really long time ago.

Dom I would use one yellow top, two if you need the ballast. I have a single Yellow top that is seven years old and it is working great. I have electric WP, Two Fuel pumps, two fans, and EFI. I have made as many as twelve passes at the track cooling it down between rounds with zero starting issues.

You can also use the blue top with the light grey bottom. The Blue tops are the same thing they just have the marine terminals on them and no side posts. The Blue top with the black bottom is the same as the red top. The downside of buying the blue tops is that the warranty is only two years vs three for the yellows and reds.

I hope the Optima issues have been resolved. My battery box is tucked in so tightly that you can't change the battery without pulling the box. I used an Optima red top with good results before, but will need a new one when the engine goes back into the car.

Interested in a cost effective option?

Nearly all of our batteries come from the salvage yards. $30 +/- most of the time. Most batteries have the group code, production date, and capacity on them, so an informed choice can be made.

I use salvage yard batteries in the Cuda, all the tractors, and most of the used cars. If we stay with batteries made within the last year or so, we rarely have a failure. The used battery in the Cuda has been in there several years now and still starts the Hemi just fine.

Salvage yard batteries save us hundreds of dollars a year.

We have Sears Diehard Platinum batteries in all of our cars and have for years but now it seems they are gone now too.

I've been using the Cosco batteries for years..
the one in the race car has been in it 10 years
and I only had to charge it 1 time when the alt
hot lead came unplugged.. now I use it in my
boat.. its a Allstate

Optima

red Optima in my car.

Well, I cranked it over and my room mate said they dropped to 7-8 volts which he said was bad so what is an acceptable drop in voltage while starting a car..........Electric guy I am not..........

Anything below 10.8 volts junk.

One battery may light the thing off just fine, and nothing says the 2nd battery has to work or be connected if you just need ballast. Seems to me that A-bodies need all the rear weight you can put in there. I've seen as much as 300 lbs of ballast to get them to pitch rotate on a mid-10s car.
I've had good service from my Optimas but usually just buy batteries from Autozone, keep 'em on a Schumacher trickle-charger, and I get more than 7 years out of them and as much as 10. A load test (amps) is a better way to judge if the battery has enough grunt, but I've found if there's less than 12.4 static it's just about done for anything with decent CR or cyl pressure.

If the battery stays above 9.6 volts when it is tested at its rated CCA then it is good, what it should drop to in the car depends on how much your starter draws. It is safe to say if it drops that low with TWO batteries then you for sure have a problem lol.

What is the voltage on the batteries just sitting off the charger?

Here's a kicker.........after my last attempt to add air slots and holes in the rear valance to re leave the air that was getting trapped in there and blowing out my fuel cell foam plug, my dumb ass forgot to hook up the ground from the rear bumper bolt I've been using forever. So it looks like I killed em but they were 11 years old and the single 1000 cca saves almost 45 lbs so maybe a blessing in disguise..........the only ground in tact was the fuel cell small azz wire so I'm surprised it even worked at all........feeling pretty stupid right now........