Installing Optima battery in the 1st Gen Tacoma

The old green battery that came with my truck died on me and the truck would barely crank over in my driveway. I went to the 'zone and picked up an Optima Yellow top since their zone gold stuff or whatnot doesn't really do it for me.

Since it didnt really fit without a bit of modification, I thought I would share some pointers I learned to make it work in hopes to help others thinking they got the best battery only to get home and find it does not fit our trucks right!


Found out the new Optima did not fit with out a bit of manipulation as mentioned. Luckily it came with some parts I was able to use to make it work, the base was needed in order to raise the battery enough to get it level with the Tacoma mounting bar, thanks Optima.


A keen eye and/or fellow Optima owner may have noticed the other modification above needed in order to be able to clamp the smaller Optima battery into the factory mount. I used the other existing part (flat squarish piece) and trimmed out the center section to fit it under the clamps to fill the gap.

The arrows point to the additional "spacers" I needed to make to hold this thing down tight. Came out super sturdy, but a bit of a hassle and head scratching so I hope this helps someone else down the road!


Cranks over like a dream now but the install wasn't as quick as I would have envisioned, of course this is the norm living in Tacoma World isnt it?!

 

Update:

The above method worked out fine, until I hit the autocross last weekend! After a couple hard runs wouldnt you know it, the truck would not start up. Popped the hood and saw the battery had slid out of place and a connector came loose.

I had to use an emergency covid mask as a spacer just to finish the event and drive back home!


So today I did a couple more mods to hopefully cinch it up in an autocross proof fashion. First I glued some rubber from a tool drawer liner under the spacer to help prevent sliding.


Then I tucked in more of the rubber inside and outside my previously built yellow spacer to fill the gaps better and allow me to crank it in tighter.


Then tucked more rubber all folded up underneath the other side and cranked it all down to get it to where I could not budge it even trying forcefully.


Let's hope this works out, I think I may be hitting the next event coming up in a few weeks!

 

You need to get one of the fancy aluminum bars. Mine doesn't move and I've put it trough it paces.

 

This would be nice if it works! Mine "was good" until I hit the autocross in it... link?

All those black scratches aren't left behind from it sliding around are they?!!

 

Link

https://www.tacomaworld.com/posts/24972733/

 

Thanks i got side tracked looking at duel battery setups a couple pages deep.

 

Looks like a nice option to keep in mind, thanks guys!

Though I think if I built a custom bracket just for the Optima I would want lose the plastic spacer to keep the weight a bit lower with less shitty plastic stuff holding it together.

 

Maybe go with something like this then.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Optima-75-...d-top-tray-offroad-rock-crawler-/290617704980
Why not relocation it under the bed passenger side that will give you the best weight distribution and puts the weight as low as possible

 

That'd be a good write up I'd save for use too

 

I think there from the old tie down. Ill look at the new battery.

 

This is exactly where my brain was going after looking at this a bit.

First I thought I would lose the plastic spacer and then modify the oem arm, or fabricating a custom arm. Then I started thinking for my efforts it would probably make more sense to relocate the battery just like you are suggesting here.

Hence why I decided to just make it work for now while researching the relocation for another day!

 

I dont know much about lithium automotive batteries honestly, but this sounds like an awesome solution for me if it really is 7-10 pounds. I was thinking to relocate my agm, but if I could simply drop 26-30 pounds (My Optima yeller top is 36 pounds) and have the battery TOTALLY secure in the oem mount this sounds pretty darn awesome to me!!

Please shoot me the link to your ebay item, I see a bunch on there now but I would like to check yours out since you turned me on to the lipo idea!!