Left the lights on today at work from about 6 this morning until almost 4 this afternoon. Yup the Red Top was so dead that we couldn't even get it to fire by push starting it. Jumped it off of another vehicle and I took off for the house, about 7 miles. Well I noticed that the oil pressure was about half what it usually is and the charge meter was less than half of what it should have been no matter what rpm I was at.

Got to the apartment and turned the truck off and there wasn't enough juice in there to even make the starter click when I hit the key. So I pulled out my spare battery (Interstate from May of 2005 that's been sitting in concrete for two years) dropped it in the rig and it fired right up. Oil pressure came up, alt gauge looked normal.......

Could the Red Top being that dead have affected the readings at the dash? I put it in the garage with a trickle charger on it hoping to save it. I can't afford to buy another one, this one cost me 25$ in a raffle and I sure as heck don't want to buy a new one.

 

You kill a RED top and they are dead. If you get an Optima get a YELLOW as you can charge them a bazillion times/drain, repeat.

 

Damn! If it doesn't come back from the grave overnight on the charger I'm going to be spending my beer money on another battery.

Thanks.

 

I hope you have better luck than me, I had a Red Top in my Tundra a while ago and left the AMP on all night one time...came out the next morning, had to jump the truck and it would barely run (I'm assuming since the ECU wasn't getting the correct amps/volts). Tried charging it and it would never pick up a charge again. Needless to say I didn't buy another one since I dropped $120 on that one and I only had it for like 3 months.

WabFab, the yellowtop is their deep cycle correct? There's no problems with running that as your main battery? Good to know....(I'm sure I could search and find this answer, but...)

 

would like to know if you could run it as a main too....i put a deep cycle in my old ford...(no other bat and i had no money ) and my volt meter said like 17/18 all the time..lasted like 8 months like that..then weird stuff started happenin... like turning on my windshield wipers with my lights on it would kill the truck for a sec then start runnin again ? 0_o

 

lol, I killed my Red-Top when I left my lights on at work a few weeks back, from 7am to 4:30 in the afternoon

Needless to say, I thought something was up when I put the key in and didn't get that "welcoming" buzzing she wouldn't even click the starter

I just jumped it off with a jump box from the shop, drove home from work, and by the time I was home, she was starting on her own again



but then again, I go have a 130amp alt...

 

I really hope this one comes back. I do not want to buy one. What kills me is the Interstate trail spare has been drained to nothing several times, is 4 years old and after sitting in the garage for 2 years it fired the rig right up.

If I have to buy one though it will be the Yellow Top. I'll see if I can bring the Red Top back enough to use as a trail spare.

 

In my old Dodge diesel I had 2 red tops. Last winter I had a relay crap out on me and since I wasn't driving it for a while it drained both batteries to nothing. (0.5v on the multimeter) Then it froze to -40 celsius for several weeks. I brought them in and thawed them then slow charged them for several days. When I put them back it the truck fired up and they are still working great for the new owner of the truck. So they are not all bad.

 

yeah my Red-Top is 4 years old



it honestly surprised me that it survived...


when it DOES finally eat it though, I don't think I'll get a Yellow-Top... that'll SO kill my under the hood color scheme...

 

Deep cycle batteries work fine as you "main" battery. Why would you think that they wouldn't. They simply can be discharged deeper and charged back up more times and with less damage than a "normal" battery.
Draw a non-deep cycle down much more than 5% or so and you'll quickly kill most of them,
Also, forget the silly Optima's get an Odyssey or the Sears equal.
Much, much better battery.




Fred

 

The reason for not going to a deep cycle is if you live in a cold climate. Deep cycle batteries have thicker plates and less surface area for CCA. This is of course not an issue for a lot of people. If however you live in a cold environment then surface area of the battery plates is where it is at. When I say this I am in no way disagreeing with the above statement except when in a cold environment.

 

Just get an Odyssey with the CCA that you want. They make a couple really big'ns

The "cold problem" is not really a problem at all. The CCA's tell the whole story.
We furnish aircraft mainship batteries and they are all deep cycle and there is not problem with cold at all.
From a battery standpoint, hot is actually more of a problem than cold.




Fred

 

optima redtop, RIP.
The reason it would not push start is that the alternator has to have an "on" signal on the small wire of at least 3 volts for it to start charging.
I bought my 4runner about six months ago, had some complicatons getting tags and top it all off work's been slack and been on tight budget.
Point being it came with a dead battery, i mean dead as in, it *might* start back up if you cut it off and one again real quick, or it might not.
I just been parking on hills and putting it in gear to get started for the last few months. One day I left something on and it killed the battery to zero. I put my foot on the clutch to roll down the hill, a big hill, and it just would not start. Then I remembered about the signal wire and got it started with scraps of wire and a 4D Maglite hooked up with jumper cables, and behold it started.

 

I have two Yellow tops in a Chevy dually and they have been going great for over 4 years now.

http://www.carstereo.com/installs/ph...w=1&maxrows=12

They discharge fast to hold the volts up when under a load, and charge fast aswell. I have the two hooked together all the time, but one will start the 454 easy on a cold morning. I use them to play the tunes without the eng. running and they do very well at keeping the volts up even under a heavy load. Good batts....

Junkers, hope the Red Top comes back. Charge it slow and cross your fingers.