hey guys and gals. after my 20 month old diehard gold crapped out on me this past week or so ive decided to just say screw it and go with a deep cycle optima and be done with it. ive read that the yellow top is about an inch longer than stock, which is why ive not been able to find one on the typical battery that fits your car type sites. i was just wondering if anyone knew if it would be possible to modify the battery tray on my car to accomodate it? i really want a deep cycle because apparently normal duty batteries cant handle the 120 mins at the drive in on a regular basis without crapping out, and im really so very tired of swapping batteries all the damn time. its worth it to me to just get the diehard replaced, put it in my dads trunk till he starts driving again and get the yellowtop.

thanks alot guys!

how much is a optima? because IMO interstate>optima. if you put your car into intersate.com it says 110 or 130 for the extra big one. we goto the movies all the time in my wifes bonnie and it lasts two movies and starts fine. do you have an amp? we had to take my monte last week and i just unplugged the sub amp turn on and used just the speakers for one movie and it started fine.

no amp... only thing i can figure killing it is with the key on, the cb gets power. i had it off but i dont know if its still drawing. only other accessories i have are the radar detector and the phone charger. both of which ive left on for over 48 hours before i hardwired them into the radio wire and the car started fine. my alternator is always putting out a confirmed 14 volts, unless ive been driving a good bit and then it drops down to 12.9 or so.

sounds like your battery sucks, but you dont really need an optima, the either interstate would be fine, assuming no other problems and you dont plan on putting an amp in. you have an aftermarket stereo right? i take my yukon sometimes which has a sony hu and no external amp and that starts fine too.

well, i made my mom feel guilty when i told her about it because i was originally going to get an advance auto battery with the 3 year, then pro rated warranty. but my dad had to butt in and tell me how amazing diehard is and that thats what i need to buy, so i did. she was feeling sympathetic and gave me $150 and said go buy a battery. i already had $150 so i just sprung for the optima for peace of mind. ended up getting the yellow top and it fit perfectly. it wouldnt have if it didnt come with its own clamp to replace the factory one but it did, which was nice. so as far as im concerned i got an optima yellow top for $70 and kept the core for that price. figured id put it in my little brothers gokart when i get back. he is currently using my other jump box which im not thrilled with.

i hope it works out. i bought 4 red tops for some big diesel generators at work they seem to do good. but they dont get beat really, temp controlled environment with a/c charger constantly keeping them topped off.

"own clamp to replace the factory one"

Is the battery on your car under the hood or under the back seat?

under the hood, it came with its own little puck thing to replace the factory one. it also came with 2 long strips that look like they fit on the battery, dunno what those would be used for.

get a yellowtop mine has been through 2 cars now. i had to get a aftermarket hold down for my cutlass, and the gagt i just broke a bit of the tray off as it was a bit long. the gtp tray is the same size as the ga one but only metal but the corners arnt welded so you should be able to bend the end by the header pannel down to make it fit. so if yours is anything like those think that should be all you need to do. im using a d34-78

I hope your optima works well and offers long life Jason.
I really like the AGM'* for power & being sealed with no corrosion to terminals.
In my case with all the Park Ave'* lights & electronics drains the 2 year old 800CCA Delco was failing load tests after manual charging.
If I would have had a Sears Auto Center I would have got the AGM Copy by Enersys
in the Sears Platinum.
Instead I installed the Odyssey PC-1500 dual terminal by Enersys .
With a midtronics load tester it produced 1219 CCA!


Reserve of 135 minutes, I think I will be ok now as I often leave stuff plugged in overnight too.