I play in the mud so I'd have to clean them anyway. What did you pay for you Optimas and do you know the dimensions of them?

I sell batterys for a living and over the past ten years I have watched the optima battery price skyrocket and quality plumit. Most of your good group 31's have about 1000 cca's you can get good group 65 with 880 cca's which is plenty if your running dual batteries. Also the group 31's are considered a comercial battery so the warranty length is about 2 or 2.5 times less than the group 65's. And they will fit in your late model fords and dodges with the low hood clearance.:tu:

So then what brand do you recommend?

x2

The hardest part about this is that I don't want to have to buy batteries twice. Meaning buy a set of cheap get-me-by group 65s to throw in my truck for now then buy the bigger ones after my motor swap.

i will throw my 2 cents in since i am running the setup u want.

i have one "blem" group 31 stud type battery mounted in my toolbox. ground wire goes to frame, possitive wire is 4/0 and runs up to the starter, then another 4/0 runs up to a junction stud i have mounted on the inner fender to send power to the solinoids. ground wires on the motor go to the frame now. last winter i had no issues with starting with only one battery.


btw, the older fords is have 4/0 running from battery to battery then down to the starter on the + side.

Gotta love knowing people that work at an auto shop and happen to be an Interstate dealer. Went in and they are going to talk to the guy when he comes in next week and see if they can work me a good deal on either a single 1000CCA battery or 2 950CCA group 31s. They think I might be able to buy them right off the truck at their(the shops) cost.

I paid $150 each

They are group 34/78 and you should be able to find the dimensions on the Optima site

Thanks. I'll check their site.

The shop talked the the battery guy yesterday and they can get me 2 group 31s new for $100 each or the guy also has 2 used ones with a 1 year left on warranty for like $50 each. I forgot to ask them if they checked on the big 1000CCA single battery so I'll have to stop in and check on that. But even $100 each isn't bad, since I'd be paying at least that for regular group 65s.

Any GP31 should be at least 1000cca.