Group 31 battery advice

I’ve been researching group31 batteries for a week now. I’m considering three batteries, 2 from same manufacturer.

The first is a Duracell 31m agm, Deka/East coast penn battery. $176 at sams club, $196 out the door, with only a 18 month warranty.

The other two are northstar 31m agm or a X2Power 31m agm. There basically the same battery except the X2 has a 4 yr warranty vs. the north with 3yr.

The X2 from batteryplus has a 10% off discount and should be around $370 out the door.

The Northstar from Amazon is $399.

Does anyone have experience with the Duracell agm in a taco?

How is the return policy with battery plus? Is it worth paying the extra money for 2.5 years of warranty? Or will battery plus just reject the claim?

I’m trying to decide if the 170 dollars and 2.5 years more in warranty is justified. I think all three will meet my needs just fine.

The truck has many accessories, arb fridge, lights, radio ect... and 175 watts solar charging. The stock battery is beat. I don’t trust it for multiple night camping trips this winter with a 12 to 20 amp draw overnight.

Are there any Black Friday deals from Tacoma world venders?

 

The problem with the weight is that it puts in on you radiator support..... people have bent that support putting too much battery and off roading.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...d-and-adventures.362772/page-16#post-10871965

 

Someone recommended me to replace my battery with a deep cycle Marine battery for the extra
Use off accessories and quality of battery ?, any ideas on this

 

Every Optima I have ever had (I believe 4) died quite prematurely. Like others are saying about charging the Odyssey (I have two Odysseys in my current Taco) it seems like if you drive them every day they are ok. Once they sit for a while, they die and are a royal PITA to restore. That being said, inevitably there will be several posts to follow stating the exact opposite. No battery is flawless and no brand wont have lemons. They are all quality batteries. You kind of just have to pick one and decide for yourself.

 

I put an Interstate AGM in my first gen and if the truck sat in the subzero cold for a few days it was stone dead. I had no problems the rest of the year, but winter that battery checked out. I had it warrantied before I sold the truck.

I don't think i'll try an AGM battery again anytime soon.

 

I am a fan of NorthStar.

 

Didn't read all the posts in this thread, but aren't you supposed to charge AGM batteries at around 14.4-14.7 volts? The stock alternator only puts out 13.9 volts max, so if you aren't putting them on a proper battery charger, at least once a month, then you are really doing more harm than good by not keeping them properly topped off voltage wise - and the longevity is severely diminished ??

Maybe I'm wrong, but I believe this is what I've read in the past regarding AGM batteries. Someone please enlighten me, as my stock battery is about to crap out...it's dropping down to 11 volts when I turn the truck off.

 

Subd. Good discussion.

 

I believe you are correct on AGMs.

I believe I saw charging volts in the high 13s at idle. Anything above idle was solidly in the lower / mid 14s on mine according to Torque. I will check that.

 

Why would any Battery Manufacturer make an automotive battery that is not compatible with automotive electrical systems? The only AGM I have ever tried was the Odyssey I mentioned earlier in this thread and its going on 11 years old, the only times I ever had to charge it was when I ran it dead replacing a side window glass from running the window motor up and down.

 

Going based off what I've read before, which is why I asked for someone to enlighten me...I didn't say it was true or false.

Reference:
https://www.centurybatteries.com.au...alk/issue-2-battery-talk-battery-charging.pdf

 

Right, I don't know the answer either, I was just questioning why someone would make an automotive product that you would be unable to use.

 

@jgallo1 I run an X2Power group 31. Rebranded Northstar, and had a better warranty at least at the time. Lots of extra CCAs, but it is tricky to get the cables right, or you need to lengthen the cables in the truck. You also need a battery cage to run one. A gp27 AGM would probably be just fine for you application.

 

I think it has to do with the overly complicated (proper) charging of AGM batteries, they need more voltage after a deep discharge, and never really reach the float stage of charging.

I would just hate to buy an expensive ass battery and it goes to shit after 3-4 years because it wasn't being charged properly to begin with, ya know?

 

Really pleased with my Northstar / RedArc BCDC setup on my 200 Series LC and it's been flawless. Use the smaller battery for starting the engine and the larger battery for all accessories. I have 4 rigid lights up top and 40,000 Lumen Feniex AI bar as well as a 60L National Luna Dual zone fridge and have never had a power issue.

 

Think of volts as a water pipe. Larger pipe more flow, higher voltage equals more amps able to charge battery faster. A battery is only full after it’s been over charged past it’s rated amp hour capacity for a set duration.

A battery can be fully charged at a lower voltage it will just take longer, sometimes very long. Some battery’s also can be damaged from a lower voltage charge, follow manufactures rec’s.

What’s more interesting about the 3rd gen Tacoma is the reduced amp output, above idle, for fuel efficiency/emissions/mileage. I believe @OVTune said he had full control over the ecru and can adjust the output of the alternator.

The output that is at 100% is at idle with my arb cmk12 compressor running.

The yellow is driving at speed with lots of stuff on, lights and inverter.

 

Interesting. I checked mine at idle while getting gas this evening..

 

Yours says % under it.

Yours says volts.

Curious, 19.x would be insanely high if it were volts.

 

I snapped this. It was the highest that I saw and did surprise me a bit since I thought that I saw higher charging numbers in the post.

You can see from the tick marks, that the volts didn't range any higher. The left one is commanded (by the ECU?). The other is reporter through the OBD adapter.

I would definitely think this is too low to keep an AGM happy?