[Scales]

was just talking to QIK. he contacted Optima, and they dont recommend using them as a winch battery!!

so there ya go. point proven.

[-QIK-]

As above, I called em this arvo and they guy recomended the next battery up. As i cant fit it in my engine bay its not going to happen.

He told me its ok to use as a start up battery as its only used in short bursts. Jap turbo 4cyl cars is what it was aimed for he told me. Or to use as a second battery for running a small medium fridge. But using it as a 12000 lb winch batt is going to kill it real quick.

Looks like Im going duels.

[Mike57]

I took a couple of photos of the D51 Yellow top fitted to the 2009 model Jimny.

As I only have room for one battery I had to compromise on what this was going to be. If you ran a winch from this one continuousy drawing high currents then I agree you might "kill it". The battery will be damaged by high internal temperatures. The Yellow top is a compromise so if running a winch it will be necessary to just use short bursts and of course keep the engine running. If I eventually set up a second battery systm inside the car then this one will be moved inside and become the fridge battery and I would get a different Optima for the main starter and winch battery. In the mean time I am going to give this a go.

Those are just temporary connections at the monent by the way, the job is not finished yet.

I also checked the battery and it has 450 CCA on it despite the brochure saying 500 CCA.

[christover1]

How are you liking the battery, is it doing what you ask of it?
My battery may be the next job I have to do, or related to it.

[Mike57]

Chris

Happy with the Optima although I have not stressed it too much at this stage. I just ordered another one to put in the back to run the fridge. I corresponded with the optima rep to find out if there was a better winch battery in this size but the Yellow top is the only one that fits the Jimny. You might have some other options for the Vitara.

Mike

[christover1]

Mike57 wrote:

Chris

Happy with the Optima although I have not stressed it too much at this stage. I just ordered another one to put in the back to run the fridge. I corresponded with the optima rep to find out if there was a better winch battery in this size but the Yellow top is the only one that fits the Jimny. You might have some other options for the Vitara.

Mike

I do have other options, I can go a bit bigger, but Optima list D51 as stock replacement for my Vit.
No real mods needed. Maybe the battery terminals, but mine are a bit daggy anyway.
Also they are much closer to my price range than the bigger ones.
May not need one at all, but best to be prepared.
Will need one some day.
No plans for winches or fridges in near future.

[Mike57]

Chris

I paid $225 delivered on Ebay from the guy down at Bairnsdale. They drop ship from the warehouse in Melbourne. I have purchased from this guy before and all good.

Mike

[christover1]

Mike57 wrote:

Chris

I paid $225 delivered on Ebay from the guy down at Bairnsdale. They drop ship from the warehouse in Melbourne. I have purchased from this guy before and all good.

Mike

Found that guy, best delivered price so far.

[jimny_timmy]

I also got my yellow top and a metric shitload of other stuff including redarc isolators and spotlights from him... He's unreal to deal with!

[christover1]

Waiting to hear back from Dank. But will go with the Bairnsdale guy if no luck. Thanks guys.

This guy ? http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/300807176237 ... 1438.l2648

[Built4thrashing]

Try Brad at 12volt on the move.

He's very knowelagable about these types of things. He's a one man show and is a great supporter of 4wd clubs down here in melb. He will even personally deliver your stuff if he can. Not sure if his website is up yet as most of his sales comes from doing the 4x4 & camping shows and from visiting club meetings.


Highly recoment him.

[christover1]

Cool.
Thanks.
No hurry now, my battery still alive, so doing me research.
Got 3 hospital visits before me next trip, so I may get busy,
be nice to go on trip with a new battery,
but old will be fine.

[Mike57]

Chris, yes that is the one I used. Got the previous one from Dank though. The Bairnsdale guy delivers to your door so was just a little more convenient for me than Dank this time.

[Blakey]

Mike57 wrote:

So I took up Squibby's suggestion and made up a cardboard model of the Optima D51 battery today. It is a perfect fit in the battery tray and I was just a little concerned about the height. I worked out that it is just going to fit.


By the way this seems to be a fuse on the feed from the alternator. Am I right, is this just a fuse or does it serve some other purpose?



Mike

That 80A fuse is the Main fuse box fuse

[christover1]

Ordered a D51 from ebay Bairnsdale bloke.
(I got some decent bonus lolly money for a little job I did )

Thanks everyone

[christover1]

Same battery does fit a LWB efi Vitara, tight but fits.
Battery is same size as the plastic tray from the stock battery,
even though the Optima is longer.
Width is almost identical to battery that was fitted.
Heights a bit taller, but plenty of clearance.
Terminals were same size as my original battery,
though unsure if it is stock or changed by previous owner.

Vitara started much faster, now to go drive and make sure its well charged.
It arrived charged, but not fully.

[Mike57]

Well done Chris. I had to replace the terminals on the Jimny when I fitted mine. I have a second one now and after I fit the fridge slide will turn my attention to how I am going to tie the second battery down in the back in a spot that won't take up any usable space. It was not a tight fit in the Jimny by the way. Likewise it was exactly the same size as the original plastic battery tray but the battery was taller.

[Mike57]

Chris I forgot to ask do you have a battery charger. I have several if you want one. I don't need two. Let me know next week and I can bring it to the club meeting.

[aussiepat]

I ran my winch through a 200amp redarc on a yellow top optima with the fridge running constantly for around 3 and a half years.
It went u/s due to heat in the engine bay from a cracked manafold.

[Mike57]

Good to know. Thanks.

[austuff]

Hi,
Optima D51 battery's are on ebay with T1 or T2 type terminals. Does anyone know which suits 2006 jimny? (if any)

URL:
http://goo.gl/5OJoh

Cheers

[Mike57]

Not sure what size T1 or T2 is but the D51 battery terminals will be bigger than the standard Jimny size so you will most likely need to change your battery terminals on the car.

[dank]

Just as a warning to anyone with an Optima Battery I've had some problems in the last 6 months with the Australian Distributor not honouring warranty claims on batteries. They have been unbelievable to deal with as I've now had two great customers of mine who have been left high and dry by the supposed awesome reputation of optima batteries and it has caused me personally alot of anguish and frustration as my supplier is not backing up their product as I imagined they would do.

There are two main things you need to understand if you ever want to claim a warranty from Optima and expect to get a battery replaced due to manufacturing faults.

DO NOT ever let your battery get below 10.5 Volts. 10.5 volts is what optima consider to be fully discharged/ 100% FLAT. If your battery drops below this it is highly likely it won't be able to be recovered back to 100% operational and OPTIMA will not touch it.

DO NOT ever charge the battery with greater than a 10amp Charger. DESPITE what the Optima Spec sheets say and the advertised charge times for up to a 100amp charger they again will not warranty any battery that has been on a charger capable of charging more than 10amp.

We had a customer bring in a dead battery which we placed on the shop Projecta Intelli-charge unit over night which is an automated cyclic charger which puts the battery through various charging cycles based on it's voltage. We came in the next morning and it had blown the caps off and distorted the case. This charger can simply not cause this type of damage to a battery that isn't faulty. Optima wouldn't even look at it. The battery came to us with around 8volts in it. This would indicated up to 2 dead cells.

This is what Optima will cover:

2 things can be deemed manufacturing faults,

1: a dead cell, one out if six cells die (any brand of battery).It will present at around 10 - 11 volts. Unable to fully charge.

2: cracked cell connector. Will present at over 12 volts, but under load very low CCA .

These two symptoms are 2 common legitimate warranty claims.

Just some info that is worth keeping in the back of your mind. Do not let your optima run completely flat. Some fridges have cutouts which will stop the fridge running if the battery gets below 10.5 volts. Other accessories like camp lights / winches etc do not have this, so keep an eye on the condition of your batteries.

Hope that helps. sorry for the hijack but I don't want anyone else to suffer.

Mike I can drop ship Optima's to your door. I only delivered the last one as I was in the area.

[royce]

Any battery is dead at 10.5 volts, as in you've abused it and killed it, thats well past flat.

Good rule of thumb on any battery you care about is don't let it get under 12.0v, remember no battery likes being flattened, some just tolerate it more so the more charged its kept the longer it will last.

Blowing the caps off a sealed battery sounds like a big fault, like the charger has gone waaaaay over the max charge voltage.

[dank]

royce wrote:

Any battery is dead at 10.5 volts, as in you've abused it and killed it, thats well past flat.

Good rule of thumb on any battery you care about is don't let it get under 12.0v, remember no battery likes being flattened, some just tolerate it more so the more charged its kept the longer it will last.

Blowing the caps off a sealed battery sounds like a big fault, like the charger has gone waaaaay over the max charge voltage.

yeah I rang projecta about it and went through the settings we had on at the time for that battery and they reckon it was all good and the battery had to have dropped a few cells for it to build up enough vapour to blow the caps.

[Jezza86]

Just ordered a d51R. That means the pos is on the right... right?
I looked at the mock up here and that loos like the pos is on the right to me...? Did I get it backwards?

[austuff]

Be interested in this also, and did you find a good price ?

Cheers

[Jezza86]

http://www.optima-batteries.com.au/opti ... 51rt1.html or
http://www.optima-batteries.com.au/opti ... d51t1.html

240 shipped to wherever you are in OZ.
if you wait 3 weeks i can confirm or deny my stupidity in ordering the d51rt1, i think i was meant to get the d51t1

theres T1 and T2 type terminals, and from the photos the T1 ones look skinnier which would suit stock jimny battery connectors.
T2 T1

[christover1]

I just fitted man size terminals to my Vit to suit bigger battery posts.
Before Optima it allowed fitting of much cheaper batteries, think last one was a commonwhore..

[austuff]

Thanks for info guys, yes please Jezza if you can confirm which model when you get it

Cheers