Diehard Platinum 31m in 2gen.

Battery just died a few days ago and finally getting a chance to pick up a battery. Optimas wheres out of stock and will take 3 days to be shipped.

Going to pick up a Diehard Platinum 31m battery but was wondering is anyone had any issues with the terminals/mounting/factory bracket?

 

Sears CS is saying they are discontinuing the Platinum line (or something like that).

I read that Odyssey 31M-PC2150ST-M is the same battery as the DieHard Platinum 31M. How are those working out (current production)?

Are there other 31M batteries that are recommended?

 

Sears Platinums are just re-branded Odysseys.

Personally I've been eyeballing the Odyssey 34/78 and the Camburg cage.

 

Can someone fill me in on the difference between a group 31M and 27F?

 

I bought a diehard platinum 31m in March 2014 and was very happy with it. It powered my winch, lights and accessories.

Last week it started to fail. Engine had trouble starting. Battery read 10 volts with the engine off. It is 18 months old with a 3 year warranty. So, I took it to Sears and had it tested. They confirmed it was bad and said they would replace it.

Here is the bad news.

Sears no longer carries the diehard platinum 31m. They only cary diehard gold with 2 year warranty. And they do not carry a group 31 battery.

The best they could offer me was a group 33 diehard gold. It's about $100 cheaper than the platinum 31m. It only had 775 CCa compaired to the 1100 the 31m had. But that is all they can offer.

So I got the group 33 diehard gold with a new 2 year warranty and $100 credited back on my card.

Good thing is the group 33 is the same dimensions as the 31 so it fits perfectly in the battery box I made.

 

I used the factory hold-down with my group 31, removed the fixed length hook from the hold-down, and modified a second factory j-bolt for the rear by cutting it to fit and re-bending. I must have found the cheapest Toyota OEM parts, I think the j-bolt and flanged nut were under $4, and about 10 minutes to make it happen.

 

Same here, if I listen to the radio for an hour it barely starts. Going to sears to see what they will offer. Platinum 34 seems to be the closest

Edit:

Sears said too bad so I am changing over to Optima, going with a dual battery setup for future mods. I will keep the 31M and see if there is a way to recondition it.

Edit.
Removed the battery and found a crack in the housing from the negative terminal halfway down the side.