I run a stock battery and alternator. with my subs, amps, upgraded speakers, in dash navi/dvd, gryphon, hard wired radar detector and hard wired phone charger and never had a single problem. No need for a $180 battery in these trucks.

I only run optima battery's in my race cars that don't have alternators. Complete waste of money for a street car.

 

I have a Red Top in my Jeep and will be running the same when the truck's Motorcraft dies. Made by an American company, albeit in Mexico these days. It's my understanding that Varta Batteries are also from Johnson Controls; usually a step-down in power (cold cranking Amps).

 

Everything may appear fine at this surface but I'm sure there not getting the proper voltage. The stock charging system only has so much reserve power. For example your amp is probably not putting out the amount of watts that it's rated at because of the lack of voltage. And when voltage goes down current rises which mean more heat which ultimately means the increase risk of equipment failure. Of course this is in the extreme case but you get the picture. With that being said, I'm not really for adding these s called high performance batteries. Your better off spending more money on an HO alternator.

 

Optima batteries come with the adaptor for a group 65 battery because it is not as wide or long as a standard group 65. It is the same height. I just installed my red top in a 2011 F150 yesterday. It was so easy even I could do it.

 

X10! I got the redtop a few months ago and no issues. Autozone was running a special, the redtop was only$25 more than a durlast gold series... if I'm going to replace something on my truck its gonna be with something proven to exceed

 

I've had a Yellow top for three years now. Runs my 200 watt amp, electric fans, intercooler pump, twin fuel pumps, twin FPDM's, 4 extra gauges, and all the stock stuff. No issues. Even running the fans and intercooler pump for 20 mins at the drag strip to cool things off. Starts right up every time. I also like it because it has post on the top and sides. So I used the side post for everything extra and maintained a clean appearance up top. I purchased mine from AdvanceAuto.com using code P20 for 20% off. Picked it up at the store a few minutes later.

 

Good point here. If you have toys or vehicles that you don't use every week you should get a battery tender to keep them topped off properly. Using the tender, I have recovered several batteries that would not take a good charge using a standard battery charger. If the voltage is very low, you must first use a charger to increase the voltage - then put the tender on and it may come back to useful life.

 

How did you set up your twin FPDM's?

I love adap with their coupon codes.. These 2 codes I use religiously..
ES123 is $20 off a $50 purchase - Best for under $50.
TRT41 is $40 off a $100 purchase. - Best for over $100.

When its time for a new battery, I'm going for the optima yellow-top.

 

Ive had (red & yellow)top optimas for years, on several vehicles, *mostly* like them. I put a YT in my f150 2 years ago, last fall it went dead, 11V, all of a sudden. AdvanceAuto prorated a replacement - this time with a Redtop. The redtop has been fine, BUT, this past weekend for yux I put the charger on it and it was at 50% charge but still 12.4V. It charged right back up in 5 minutes, but I am wondering if this one is no going too. The next morning (~12 hours of sitting) it was back down to 60% 12.2V again. I know there are a lot of electronics always active, but that seems excessive. This may be a characteristic of this battery and the charger not accurately measuring it. I was on a business trip a few weeks back, truck sat for a week and had no issues starting.

 

also, for the winter i always have a battery warming pad and a trickle charger hooked in so i plug the truck in on a timer when its cold, never an issue with that even at -29F . I will try to post a pic of the set-up soon.