Yellow top Optima

Is this battery worth $200.00 bucks? I want to crank the boat and run 3 amps and stereo with out the chance of running the battery down below cranking amps and only have ONE battery??

you're not going to be able to do that with any 12V battery. Spend your money on a high output alternator -- but you'll still need at least 2 batts}

i guess I should say any 12V battery that will fit in your boat.

You need to run one battery for your boat and one for your stereo. The yellow, blue or red top batteries are great, but to let you know when they go out, they go out without warning. Thats my experience and I had the Yellow top. May be the others are better than the yellow ones.

Brannon

Aqua,

Optima's are known for being some of the best in the industry. I believe the blue is the "marine" one. Here is some info I dug up on em below:

Optima® offers two basic battery types: Optima starter type batteries, and Optima dual-purpose deep cycle/starter batteries. The Optima starter type batteries are superior replacement units for your car, truck, boat, or other vehicle. Optima deep cycle/starter batteries serve dual purposes: They function very well as starter batteries, but they also are designed to withstand repeated deep discharging (down to a charge level of 10.5 volts) without having their life span shortened. This ability makes them especially useful when electrical loads exceed recharge rate (including times when the battery cannot be recharged at all, such as for marine trolling motors, or for running car audio equipment with your engine turned off.) Optima deep cycle batteries are very popular for marine trolling motors, winches, special lighting, portable power, and emergency backup systems of all types. If you need high performance power for car audio, the best battery for you is one or more of the largest Optima deep cycle/starter batteries you can fit in.

Not worth $200 IMO. If you still have the XLV you've probably got the 65 amp alt (max output close to 75amp. That should be ok with three amps. Just watch your voltage. you'll be putting strain on the alt when playing the radio loud ( keep all other acc. to a min when jammin). Keep your battery fully charged when not in use, this will help the alternator out. If you want to use one battery , I'd suggest going with a large deep cycle. Even if you decide to park the baot and listen to the radio , this will give you at least a little play time w/o worrying. Keep a jumper box on board as backup.

I just went with two 6 volt golf cart batteries, half the cost of the optima and double or more amp hours capacity. You do need to watch the level in these though. Alot of rv'ers are going with these.

Aquaholic, I just recently picked up 2 Optima D34M blue tops at Advance Auto Parts in Roswell, GA. The price on them was $150 something each before taxes and core exchange (the charge you $10 if you do not have an exchange). After I talked to the guy for a minute, he knocked off the $10 charge on each and then gave me another $15 off. Total for 2 with tax was like $299.

I'm with Bob, if you've got the space and can mount them right side up, golf cart batteries are hard to beat. Think of the abuse a golf cart has to take after a round of golf...

So Bob, what are we looking at in terms of the size of 2 6 volt golf cart batteries? Just curious.

2-6 volt golf cart batteries have the equivalent of approx 4 optima blue tops in terms of amp hours/reserve capacity, and will cost you under $150 (W/ tax, out the door) for the pair.

yes worth it. I run it in my truck to power 2 amps, compressors for the suspension, tvs etc.

Mike they are width and length approximately the same as a standard battery but are taller. I read an article about an rv'er using wide adhesive foam to seal the top of a regular box. I just mounted them down and have covers over the terminals.