So, the front end of my truck is getting put back together tomorrow. Inner fenders, inside of the hood, core support, frame, upper/lower control arms, sway arm, shocks, coil springs, calipers, and rotors have all been painted/touched up. New control arm and sway arm bushings from Energy Suspension have been put in. New Monroe heavy duty gas shocks installed, and new rotors with rebuilt calipers and new pads. In the engine dept, the exhaust manifolds were blasted and painted with 1200+ degree paint, a new double-row timing chain installed, with a painted timing chain cover, water pump, harmonic balancer, pulleys, and radiator fan. Also, new Bosch plugs, and MSD wires, with an Accel cap. Got a new Gatorback belt, and new radiator hoses.

Needless to say, Im excited to start it up. The battery, however, is shot. Its a Duralast, so that pretty much explains everything.. I'm having a real hard time deciding between going with an Oreillys house-brand battery, or go with an Optima RedTop. Optima will cost me $170 up front, but they have a $25 mail-in-rebate to bring it down to $145. An Oreillys house-brand will set me back roughly $85-90 depending on the warranty. Does a RedTop really outperform the housebrand so much that it warrents paying an extra $60. I'm not sure how long I'll have the truck, more than likely for over 3 years.

What do you guys think?

 

The Optima's stand up much better in high vibration and off road situations but as for power comparisons I can't say one is better than the other.

Optima sure looks pretty though!

I've had good luck with the batteries from Costco. Price is pretty good too.

 

I have a red top and will buy another for my 57 when it it ready to drive. After owning mine i will never go back to a lead acid battery agin!!! To me a O'Reilly batery vs a Optima thier is NO comparision at all don't waste your money on a Slow'reilly battery you would be better off taking your chances buying a Never Start from Wal-Mart.

 

I just went through researching this and asking on several forums. Seems like a lot of people have had a high failure rate and were saying they went through 5 or 6 before getting a good one but once they got a good one they liked it.


I also talked to a guy that worked at I think Pep Boys and he said around half the battery returns for defective batteries they had come back were Optima's. I found a few people on each site that liked them but it seemed like in most cases it was more that didn't like it and had been through several. I've also heard several that said they don't think the new ones are of as good of quality. So that makes me wonder if the ones that had good luck had older ones.

After reading soo much bad I decided to just go to the dealer and get a OEM one. The one that came stock in the truck lasted quite a while. 8 years or so so I figured I'd go with another one of those.

 

Battery-wise, my family's had the worst luck with the Duralasts. For the most part, I shouldn't be seeing too much road vibration, other than backroads. I'm not gonna go offroading in a 2wd lol. I'm just wondering if the extended life really pays for itself? It definitely looks nice and has a much more reputable name to it. Whats the most life someone has seen out of these?

 

I never realized that. I googled reviews for em, but never came up with that. How much did the OEM run you? Do you happen to know the CCA rating on em?

 

I have a few buddies that work at parts house's and asked them about this from the last time this was mantioned on this board and 100% of all Optima's that they have recieved back were good batteries but the owners were driving in town for less than 15 min. on average or "hay it's a Optima a performance battery it can do anything" and sit up town booming thier amps and not leting thier vehicals run long enough to properly charge the battery up which in these two examples ANY battery would fail and act like thier bad untill properly charged agin. People like this are morons and can give False and bad information about a good product. You just have to take the feed back that you get here and desifer the Bullshift from truth for yourself and do what you want to do. It is after all YOUR truck not ours. I hope this helps you out. All info. was gatherd from Autozone, O'Reilly's, Napa, Gleason Auto Parts.

 

Im just trying to get the most for my money. I dont want to invest the money in a housebrand that may have a good warrenty, but I'll have to keep replacing. Its not worth my time. I want a good reliable battery that will hopefully last the length of time I keep this truck.

 

I own 3 Optima Batteries and will be buying them again when Necessary I have yet to be stranded even in -15 temps with no block heater and regular oil. Mine are 1-4 years old and they all crank like new even in the winter and with an average of 9 mile drives summer and winter. 2 V8's and one V6.

I hope this helps.

Chuck

 

My take on it; The Optima batteries have a much higher failure
rate than others. I know,.. I went through three of them in my
Mustang in one year before just giving up and going with a
Interstate battery. I've had this battery go completely dead four times during the course of the three years I've had it.
And it is STILL fine after slow charging it back to life. The cost? A little more than half the cost of the Optima. Just don't get a Duralast.