6V Optimas fit in the battery well on 52-55 Lincolns fine, as the car used Group 2N narrow battery. The one I had lasted over 9 years before the horn relay got it. Does Odyssey make a 6V battery?
Optimas? you guys know your are on a traditional forum ? right? these are the street rod batteries for gold chainers.. anyone who buys a battery inflated to 4x its useful price, just so they can say they mounted it upside down needs engineering classes.. for the cost of one of those miserable failures, i could buy 3 or 4 lead acid batteries, but havent needed to do so in quite a while ,due to the fact that all my lead acid batteries have out lasted the 2 optimas i had given to me in vehicles i had purchased. mexican crap..too I think i only saw one application where using this battery was helpful..all the others i have seen , i saw where a regular battery could be used if the person would have taken the time to "work it out"
Guess that makes me a Streetrodder and gold chainer again! Had a red top on the kripple kart for four years now. I'm happy. You don't get an awful lot of choice over here in compact land when you need to crank over a 5.8 in the snow. Paul
Odyssey does not make a 6V battery. Too bad for them as they might sell quite a few. I found a battery place in Illinois that sells Optima 6V batteries for $127. Going rate for a lead acid 6V is around $80. So Optima batteries (at least the 6 volt variety) can be had for a reasonable price. They even give you a 3 year replacement warranty. When things get financially better for me I will be purchasing another one for my 54 Lincoln. This time I will put a disconnect switch on it or just pull the cables.
Got mine for free, and most of my car is traditional not sure that makes me a gold chainer or not!! Mounting mine right side up under the body in a home made battery box. We will see how long it lasts, didn't see a charger for 2 years before I got it but it works great so far. Who knows what I will get next, that is why I built a box to hold any kind of that size or a little bigger.
Dont worry Krip or Djust...Im just stirring up the pot..I was borred its obvious theres applications for these, and im not bashing the idea..(i know it looked that way...ok maybe i was) just having fun with a worn out thread. Their quality has taken a dive since being outsourced to Mexico..and the way i was treated on the warrenty on one of them i had..was well should i say less than stellar..as far as im concerend Optima can shove these POS up their ass, and i hope that this dive in quality and the move out of this country wakes up some of us Americans to the fact that there are better alternatives right here, and backed up by integrity I do have 2 nice boat anchors that look ,,Just like these so called kick ass batteries.
UPDATE: i have to give props to optima. 1) NOTES: a) i am not trying to refute in any way any bad performance, luck, circumstances, quality or customer service with this battery. If they exist, then this needs to be examined and addressed. b) They aren't paying me to say this. i don't know anyone from optima. i am only reporting my totally unbiased experiences with these batteries. If something sucks i will say so. If something is good i will also say so. Totally unbiased. 2) One of my cars has sat for about 3 months. i went to start it up no problems about 2 days ago. It took several crankings because the injectors lost prime or something. All very brisk crankings and all the lights, signals etc. worked normally---no dimness or slow flashing. a) This is a D34 yellow b) i don't use a battery tender or trickle charger. i've never owned a trickle charger. c) i do have a battery charger specifically designed for agm/deep cycle batteries. It's a schumacher (sp?). i can get the model# later. i did run these batteries down during camping/ "off-grid" experiments, but i used this charger to bring them back up and there have been absolutely no problems. i think one of the keys maybe is to get very anal-retentive and follow the exact instructions from optima.
I'm not going to try to push the agenda in either direction. I'm going to relate how mine has worked. When I bought my 47 it had a 12V red top in it that was bought used at a local swap meet. I was wiring the car, and was using the battery, plugging and unplugging the ground probably a million times to check circuits. Ran the sucker down three times. Once, it was so dead it would just barely make an 1157 glow. I thought I'd killed it. Recharged it, got the car charging, and my 12V flathead generator keeps it hot enough to weld with. Simple 47 style car, no windows, or locks. low power am/fm, and 6024 sealdbeams. I didn't buy it, but considering how this one has worked, I'll certainly give thought to replacing it with another one.
I love them, when I lived in Arizona most "normal" batteries only had a life span of 2-4 years most optimas seem to average a 6-8 year life span in Arizona, I just had to replace the one in my Dodge that I first installed in my O/T jeep in 2004 and has been in 3 different vehicles since then. when I was working at shops around Arizona I always payed attention to the "in service" dates and the optimas just way outlast the normal parts store batteries.
I have two of them one red one yellow both were brought back from the dead i dont think that I can kill the red one use it in my drag car with no alt lawn mower or any thing that has a dead battery and it sets for a long time with out use. The yellow one is in my suburban that does not get used much now and will have to charge it up some times but if I drive it often I dont have problems with it I must have got lucky.
I had a red top. Might be ok for a daily driver, but mine was in a mustang that I started once a week and it crapped out the first winter it sat for more than a week. I hate to say it but my current daily has a dura last yellow top from autozone that sat for two years, being started maybe once a month. I've had it for five years, optima is over priced and over rated. My two.
i forgot to add that the past 3 mos have been very cold here. It sat all that time. b) i am not necessarily defending the company or being pro-optima. i'm just telling things like they are in my personal case.
I have a 454 High Compression Big Block in my 48 Lincoln, Optima is one of the few batteries that will turn it over when it is hot.
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