Group 31 battery advice

I have been researching this in depth, still cant make a decision. I figured I would throw the question up here and get others opinions.

I have been more of a novice overlander for a few years now. Nothing a yeti cooler could not handle, 2-3 day type stuff. With my new truck, I am looking into what needed to go for longer periods of time. For the moment the only added electrical will be from the winch, or the compressor when airing back up. Originally I was thinking a good 27f battery would be enough, but now I wondering if I should go group 31? With the group 31, do I need to charge the battery? Would the group 31 be overkill?
Thanks

 

The best battery upgrade, IMHO, would be to go AGM regardless of size. The bigger the battery, the more it weighs, so if you are going Grp.31, go Grp.31 AGM. You gain about 40- 50 minutes of RC with a Grp.31 AGM, but also gain 14-19 lbs. Close to the same RC's going to 27f agm with little weight change and no battery tray modification. Big overkill on CCA's & CA's that you will never use in both cases. Find the best 27F AGM, (Northstar, for example) use high quality connectors and call it a cost effective mod. Your alternator will never notice it's new dance partner.

 

Thanks,
I was looking at Northstar, X2, and Diehard. I don't mind the weight, I just ordered the new ome BP-51 system and I am most likely going to add the arb bumper and a winch. I would like to keep the weight down but at this point an extra 15 lbs give or take wont kill me.
I think If I run a fridge I would rather run it off a separate battery

 

I’m a big fan of East Penn but they are harder to find.

 

Odyssey Batteries are pretty awesome too.

 

Or the OEM batteries shit?

 

I have read a lot of complaints about Odyssey. Is anyone else finding this?

 

Don't know, but I bought an Ody for my 1000cc motorcycle. Best battery I've ever had in 40 years of driving.

 

When I finally want to cry once, I'll be getting the Odyssey grp 31

 

I have had an Odyssey in my car for more than 10 years and it's still works great, never heard any complaints

 

Unfortunately, yes.

 

I've had 3 with 1 in my current rig. They suck to keep at 100% capacity. Your alt wont push enough to keep them to max capacity and then they end up with a memory and 80% becomes the new 100%. So then you have to throw them on an approved charger that costs $$$ and that never goes above 15v but pulses from 13.5-14.7 a specific way. The whole thing is just a bunch of compromises to hopefully have enough juice to start your truck in the middle of nowhere.

Reconditioning and charger info
http://www.odysseybattery.com/documents/ODYSSEY_Battery_Reconditioning_Charge_Procedure.pdf

Edit- I read all those complaints online and then still bought into the odyssey hype. Next I am going to try Northstar as they seem to be less picky about charging.

 

I may be mistaken but as of a few years ago I believe napa batteries were all relabeled east penn

 

East Penn makes the Napa batteries but not sure how similar they are.

 

Ive done a ton of research (keeping in mind mine will be for cold weather climate), and found the Northstar AGM to be one of the best. It beat out Odyssey in some online testing (just google it)

 

Same as what I read.
I need something that will work well in extreme heat and cold. I go between MT and CA. I hear great things about X2 and Northstar AGM. On expo portal a couple of people have been getting good results from diehards as well.

 

Yeah, I am going with x2 or northstar depending on if I can find a local distributor. I had one odyssey show up dead and it was a huge hassel to get it warrantied.

I even use the odyssey reconditioning process and I still have issues with them. In all my reading it sounds like the issues are with certain sizes. The smaller ones seem much more tolerant of "improper" charging, ie using an alt. The big ones seem better suited to be used on a boat where you just draw them down and then throw them on a charger and get the proper inrush of 40 amps for the specified time that the odyssey chargers are built for.

 

Here is their reconditioning process. It works but in my experience if you dont throw it on a charger at least every month then you have to do this every few months.

http://www.odysseybattery.com/documents/ODYSSEY_Battery_Reconditioning_Charge_Procedure.pdf

And this is an all day process, you dont want it to dip too far below 10v. So you end up babysitting it.

 

The only time I ever had to recharge mine in 10 years was because I ran it dead swapping out a window by constantly using the power window motor over and over without starting the car. No day to day anything process, I installed it once and have done absolutely nothing, fantastic battery. Also, this past winter the car sat 61 days between starts in frigid temps and fired up.