Re: Opinions on Optima Battery

Posted by su8overdrive On 2012/7/3 15:13:35

As mentioned on this forum before, i've had nothing but success with Optima, have used nothing but since the mid-'90s when a couple friends visited Optima's booth at a huge collector car auto jumble in Arizona, brought a couple back.
I know of fellows using a lone Optima 6-volt in Cadillac V-16s, you name it.

I'm not concerned about the underhood appearance, but imagine for those who are, it's no Herculean task to get an
old battery casing, cut it open, and cushion the Optima within. 'Course, the posts won't be at the extreme ends of the long, narrow, original shape case, but perhaps anyone poking their heads under your sleek '41 Clipper's hood to worry about such nonsense needs to get a life, get to work on their own car.

Optima waranties their batteries for seven (7) years, the first two years 100% proration. As with any battery, the closer to 100%--- not 98%-- you can keep it, the longer it'll last. A mechanic/pilot friend got 10 years service out of the traditional 6-volt wet battery in his '52 GMC truck.

My Optima now has eight (8) years on it and performs as new, holds a charge same as it did years ago. I monitor it with a volt/ohmeter now and then. The Optima leaves room on the battery tray for tools, lights, when i'm fussing with the car.

And, the Optima 6-volt, weighs only 18 lbs. vs. the heavy duty wet battery i used years ago, which weighed 55 lbs. Again, weight's the enemy, but then, some of us come from a sports car background, and are interested in 1939-47 overdrive Packard 8s and Super 8s strictly as refined road cars. I've already jettisoned over 100 lbs. from my '47 Super's curb weight. If i didn't have my Super, i'd likely have a Railton saloon. I know three '47 Super/Custom Clipper owners who all, coincidentally, at one time or another owned Bentley S-Type Continentals, and compare the older Detroit production car favorably with the limited-production Crewe product.

Someone on the postwar forum took umbrage when i suggested he not add air conditioning, but roll down his windows, use his vent windows and cowl vent. There are differing schools of thought on what Packards can be. So be it.

The Optima 6 volt is rated either 800 or 850 cold cranking amps and spins my '47 Super 8, which has a gear-reduction starter, as readily as the huge 3EH HD battery, for which i had to slightly bend the battery tray lips to receive. The Optima will easily handle the 282-ci eight in your lovely '41.

For those of us who still care about such, the Optima is made, not just labeled, in the US, in their clean Denver factory, the company founded in Sweden in 1912.

The sole Optima spec which doesn't equal the best heavy wet 6-volt is reserve capacity, which, if memory serves, is "only" two+ hours, still enough to get you to a garage, somewhere, if your generator, etc. utterly failed.

$75 is a steal.