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Sorry guys I was looking at napas website on my iPhone and I was able to find the specs listed so I dident think they had them on the site. I appreciate all the info, opinions, and expertise!

Just measured and the 7205 wins the 7248 is to big for the tray and it would be more than $30 to modify the tray!

If you are anywhere near a Mills Fleet/Farm they sell the correct battery as many farm tractors and paving machines still use them and they are less costly than NAPA IIRC. I have had good service with them in my Super Clipper.IMHO If it were my car I would stay with the original size and look battery.

Perhaps I've always been misguided, but I always thought that the major difference in battery 'Performance' concerned CCA's...which would be more significant for a car left outside and subject to repeated starting, like a daily driver. For a cossetted and garaged classic, I'd think the significance of CCA's would be minimal at best.

Why you'd want to go thru the trouble of having a 'Dummy' battery up front when you could have the real thing there, and then to go thru the improbable install of an optima somewhere else is beyond reason. You can do what you want, of course, I just have to ask why. The only thing I can tell that makes the Optima different is the odd shape of it, and personally that's enough of a reason to stay away, it looks gimmicky to me.

I've used the Napa quite successfully, with the proper braided positive ground strap, and a cut off for longer storage for around 7 years now.

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.

Dear Andy:

The optima is a good product, but I would make sure the unit you are buying isn't a clinker.

Pros:

a) Light weight reduces chances of damaging fenders and aids in hard to reach places.

b) No fumes, bubbling, and vapors underhood which rot away battery trays and wiring.

c) No need to keep a charger on it. It is like a flashlight battery.

Cons:

a) More expensive.

b) To recharge properly requires a 6 volt gel cell rated battery charger.

c) Charging systems designed for lead acid batteries are technically higher than required voltage, but as mentioned elsewhere they still provide very good service. However, using the generator to recharged a discharged gel cell will shorten its service life.

Dr. Cole makes some good points, but do not confuse the Optima with cheap gel batteries. It's nothing of the sort,
uses a spiral wound technology. Visit www.optimabatteries.com

It occurred that the $75 price might be harbinger that tho' new, the battery's been sitting on a shelf for three years.
Check the date of manufacture. Otherwise, order one from a reputable dealer or direct from Optima in Denver.

BTW, i use a 1940 Montgomery Ward battery charger, 6-volt only, of course, since that's all domestic cars used 'til the '50s, on the lower setting, which puts out perhaps one or two amps. When my Optima gets "down" to 6.36 volts from the preferred 6.4, i stick the 1940 Montgomery Ward charger on the Optima for seven or eight hours. I do this every five weeks, unless i've had the car out for a run, and i never, ever start the engine unless i'll be driving at least 18-20 miles sustained highway to avoid carbonic acid, sludge, varnish.

I know they make cheap trickle chargers, battery tenders, but the ancient Montgomery Ward charger works fine, and it's nice to use something from 1940 on my '47 Packard.

Prosit.