New Battery for the Tacoma

I want to replace the three and a half old battery in the Tacoma. What is the best brand to buy?
Thanks for your time.

 

Normal people find Interstate from Costco a good value.

 

define best, please

 

Walmart has the best prices and warranty in my opinion

 

I agree that Costco or Walmart are the stores to go to to buy a car battery. If you want the very best battery for the money, buy this new Walmart EverStart Platinum AGM battery with a 4-year warranty. First gen Tacoma use a Group 35 size battery.
www.walmart.com/ip/EverStart-Platinum-AGM-Automotive-Battery-Group-Size-35-12-Volt-650-CCA/1377056785

 

DEKA brand made in Pennsylvania by East Penn Manufacturing.

Your local NAPA store batteries are made by EPM also.

https://www.eastpennmanufacturing.com/about/passiontoempower/#

 

Luckily, I installed EverStart Platinum 24F AGM batteries from Walmart in both of my 4WD Tacomas in December 2021. The 24F was an optional size on my '97 V6 Taco 4x4 and the standard size for the '20 TRD 4WD. Both Tacos have large battery killing winches up front & these AGM batteries have worked very well for my purposes. I did a tremendous amount of winching with the '97 V6 Taco 4x4 when an unforcasted tornado ripped thru the woods while I was turkey hunting in April 2022. Over the next 4 days, I had to cut and remove 55 hardwood trees from the trails and roads just to get out. That EverStart Platinum 24F AGM battery performed very well powering the old 8K Warn winch even with the original small 70A alternator in the old Taco.

EDIT: After checking my notes, the original OEM Denso alternator in my 1/97 built '97 V6 Taco 4WD was not rated at 70A as posted above. It was only rated at 60A which was just too small to support the power-hungry older 8K Warn winch on front of the Taco. I have a new 80A Denso on it now only because the high output

$186 Denso 210-0461 Denso First Time Fit Alternator - 210-0461

Denso 210-0461 reman. 105A alternator now available from RockAuto and Summit was unavailable at that time. The new Denso 80A alternator charges at 14.4V which works very well with the AGM battery, so no need for the ALT-S mod. with the 1A diode to boost the charging voltage.

Just after the embedded tornado came spinning thru sounding like a jet on takeoff:


The last oak trees blocking my way out 4 days later:

 

Holy smokes, crazy story! I've always thought about the chance of a tornado or fire when you're already deep in the woods... glad to hear you made it out, thanks for the great reminder of how a capable truck can be indispensable when things go sideways!

OP, I went with the gold lead acid Everstart last winter and it's done fine for me, even through some tough negative temps. My friends tease about the "Neverstart" but it hasn't let me down yet.

 

Toyota offers lifetime batteries (and front brake pads and rotors) for most models now.

 

The best battery is a fresh battery....and they dont come any fresher than the Walmart everstarts...

a lot of times they sell em so fast.....they're still on the pallet...

 

My definition of best IMHO

Odyssey extreme 34R with 2 amp battery maintainer (which has been update to a 5 amp)

 

Bottom line if you have see every battery made you have basically seen all 3 or 4 of them. Tons of different name though.

 

I run the Odyssey extremes (2 of them) in my other truck, hoping to get a long service life out of them. I will only use AGM batteries but I went cheaper for the Tacoma and stuck an Exide AGM in it. Prior to that it had a Diehard Platinum, from back when they were essentially a relabeled Odyssey. It got pulled at around 9 years of use.

Do they make a 5 amp maintainer designed to be mounted like the 2 amp?

 

NAPA 27F battery installed 2013 in my 2011 still there and I also runs my plow motor!

 

I have mounted my 5 amp on the driver side fenderwell. Used stainless rivet nuts and allen head bolts.

 

My factory Toyota battery dies at almost exactly two years. Was on the way home from work and parked at the top of my street to get groceries. Came out and totally dead. Luckily its a down slope to my house. Put in in neutral and coasted all the way home. Pulled the existing 34R AGM from my other car and was up and running in a couple of minutes.

 

Call and ask if they have it for your model. That’s all I can say. I’d rather have a lifetime guaranteed battery that they’ll replace than a prorated parts store battery.

 

Dang right that’s a story to survive and tell. Hope the hunt was successful. Had my own experience with a tornado producing storm predating I phones and weather alerts. Mine consisted of a terrified couple mile run to the truck through wind, driving rain, hail and trees popping all around.

 

I really like a DIEHARD. Advance here in Asheville still carries them.