Best deep cycle battery?

Hey guys.
I am thinking of buying a yellow top battery for my main battery. I have a truck camper and want to be able to run the camper lights for a few hours at night without draining the battery. A dual battery setup is not in the cards this year. So is yellow top the way to go? Any batteries that out preform the yellow top? Thanks for any input!

 

Lots of people are going to tell you not to go with an Optima. They are going to give you a bunch of bullshit about how their quality has taken a shit, and they suck and blah blah blah.

They are going to tell you that you need to buy a battery that cost twice as much or you'll be stranded in the woods with lions and tigers and bears trying to eat you.

Fuck that... I run Yellow tops... and have for years. I have multiple friends that run Yellow tops for off road as well as large stereo systems... they have never let me down.

 

I have had a Red Top in my Samurai going on 8 years with zero problems. I also have a Blue Top(deep cycle) in my boat for 10 years. I mainly bought them for the gel and bouncing around in both the samurai off-road and my boat. I have no complaints. I also like Deka.

 

I'm in the Yellow Top camp, have had 3 in 3 different vehicles. None have let me down.

 

another option would be to install a smaller, lights only battery in the camper shell out of the way, such as an optima power sports or similar. They are AGM and are multi positional. Some of these have VERY good reserve capacity... reserve capacity is what you are looking for. For your information reserve capacity is the ability for a battery to hold a 25 amp load until the battery discharges to 10.5 volts. If your shell has LEDS for bulbs I would expect your reserve capacity to be in the many hours as opposed to an hour. I would think that if you had a 10 amp charging port you could charge it from a cigarette type connection as you go down the road.

 

I will probably do a dual battery setup eventually. That was my plan but now summer is here and its time to go camping. My main battery is shot anyways. Ill probably buy the yellow top and move it over to an auxiliary battery next year. Using a 10 amp charger would be a quick and easy setup though. Thanks!

 

I'm a fisherman and own a half dozen deep cycles between the three boats. I only buy Interstates and I charge and discharge them dozens of times a season- hard use. I tend to get 5 years or so out of them. Not saying the Optimas are bad or anything, just that I have had extremely good luck with Interstate and they seem to be less expensive.

 

Not to get off topic, but real quick... what battery tray are you running for the passenger side?

 

I kind of customized one off Amazon.

 

I dont really have a preference on brand, but I would strongly recommend going dual battery now instead of later. Engine cranking and constant discharge really need two different design architectures to be ideal. If youre starting an engine off of a deep cycle battery, youre going to hurt some components, as your starter strains to find the cranking amps it needs. Running lights and water pump off of a cranking battery is just going to kill the battery. The reason is that deep cycles use thicker plates for greater storage volume but at a cost of lower surface area. Its ideal for a constant, low amperage draw, but it cant handle high amp bursts. Starting batteries by contrast use thin plates which give short bursts of high amps, but diminished storage capacity.

There does exist a dual-purpose (marine) type battery, but its tough to find one with the required amount of cold-cranking amps to get your engine to turn.

In short, you have two different types of electricity demands. Trying to find a battery that meets both types of demands is difficult at best, and wasting your money at worst.

 

Optima Yellow top is a true dual purpose battery. It has more Cold Cranking Amps than required for this application, as well as deep cycling capability.

My suggestion to OP would be to go with a Yellow top for his main battery and then add the additional Yellow top when he is ready to go to a dual battery setup.

 

Thanks for that, I made room on my PAX side a long time ago knowing I would eventually stuff a battery there. I was just going to fab up my own mount out of some angle iron, but for $30 and a little grinding I like your solution. Are those Gp 31's?

 

Mine are 34/78. I think the tray actually fits a Group 31.

I wanted the same battery in both locations. A 31 would have fit in my stock location but 34 was the biggest I could get in the second location.

 

Sort of agree with you there. Dual purpose is never great at both. Like a dual purpose motorcycle wont out preform a true dirt bike. But hopefully a dual purpose battery gets me through the summer.

 

Thats the reason im looking at a single battery set up. Too much work for me and I don't own a welder. Looks nice and secure.

 

Does the Yellow top fit into the battery tray without modifications? The vendors are mentioning it is not a direct OEM fit.

 

NorthStar is far better than Optima. A smaller NorthStar battery outperforms a larger Optima, meaning you can have more power than an Optima Group 31 by running a smaller battery size.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-northstar-agm-battery-voltage-booster-upgrade.604478/

 

I use a BatteryPlus X2Power Premium AGM Battery, I have had this for 2 years now, runs a fridge all day and zero problems. I believe it’s made by the same people who make NorthStars. If you have a BatteryPlus near you, check it out.

 

2XPower is a lightly relabeled NorthStar as covered in the thread above, still says NorthStar on the side and is identical except in price, color lid, and labeling.

 

There’s been plenty of recent complaints about Optima since they moved production to Mexico. Anyone can look it up.

I’m running an Odyssey 34R PC1500 and bought another one on a great deal to install a dual battery setup.

Whichever AGM battery you buy, it’s advised to put it on a 7 stage 20+ amp charger at least once a month for maintenance and bring the bulk charge back to 14.7v

https://www.vmaxtanks.com/BC1220A-12V-20A-7-Stage-Smart-Battery-Charger-Maintainer-_p_160.html