thinking about going to a standard car battery for my 36 pd, any problems yall can see with that?

Nope

nope....you'll have to change your terminal connectors.

go with interstate marine battery!!! trust me u wont go wrong with it. it worth the money and its way way better then the optima jel tops

Yep,the interstate batteries are great. No priced too bad, either.

they are all peobly made in the same shop on mexico.

just get a walmart car battery and check your motor periodically to ensude it's putting out and u'll be fine.

of corse, i'm running a obital 6 bla bla bla barrery dat cost 200 $. lol

I have always used the Interstate marine batteries and had no problems!I would love to know why the Optimas cost so damn much!!I think RC was running the Optima batteries and had some problems with them!

getcha' an odyssey strictly for your engine & run everything else off of a wal-mart battery (put a trickle charger on it)

^ get a cheap solar panel for a deer feeder from academy and mount it on top of the battery box hooked to the battery. Works like a trickle charger, and since it's only a 6v panel, it won't overcharge. Cheap and effective.

The optima is an agm battery. So is the orbital, which is made by exide. They are very similar batteries. I use optima in one car and orbital in the other. I have had an optima redtop on one of my boats for about two years now. Hardly ever charge it and have never had a problem. It was used in a car with a high current stereo for about two years prior to being put in the boat. No problems out of it yet.

The red top is a starting battery, the yellow is a deep cycle, the blue would be more similar to a marine starting battery. I've had lots of bad luck with the yellow's. No problems at all with the red's. And never personally used the blues.

I know a guy that used to use the blue tops in his boat and had a lot of problems with them in cold weather. Possibly because he never charged them but who knows.

The benefits to the agm batt's vs. a wet cell in a car would be:

Ability to mount in any angle and any part of the car (trunk), because they do not emit any fumes, and it is completely sealed so no worries about batt acid on anything.

They have the ability to rapidly charge and discharge. Which means they feed your electronics when they need the power and then rapidly recharge off the alternator (which in my cirucumstance is usually high output 200+ amps)

They last a long long time, even in a very stressfull environment.

In a boat with a small alternator, and nowhere near the current demands I don't see much need for it. Especially with the ability to discharge so fast. Its gonna give those big headlights every ounce of power it has very quickly. But then has no quick way to recharge, because of the size of the alt. So they will be bright until they die, but when they die they're dead. No slow drain.

I'd go with the biggest marine starting battery you can find. Wet cell. No need for dry cell, or agm.

Hope this helps. And may possibly answer some peoples questions about the optima batteries too.

I've had good luck with the Yellow top. Got one in the jeep for the last 5.5 years. Haven't driven it since early Nov. This thread got me to thinking I should probably start it. Fired right up. Not bad for battery that old.

Drove it almost everyday till about a year ago. Gas prices got too be to much just to go to work so I got a pile-o-buick. Junker but it paid for itself in gas savings. I got the yellow top so it would hold up to the winch. Can't say I've got the use out of that as I should. Hard to get stuck when on the pavement most the time, even though is has saved me a few too. Anyways, Optima rep told me the blue top and yellow the top are the same except the posts.

I've used AC Delco Voyagers for years and love them. They used to be the only maintenance-free marine battery (traditional not AGM, gel, etc) but recently the have put tops on them so you can check the water level. They say you still don't have to check them but I'm not sure I believe that. I have two 27 group batteries in my boat and they work great. They are dual-purpose batteries so I just switch them between my trolling motor and starting circuits about once a year. The last two sets I've had lasted over 5 years and I only changed them as a precaution.

A marine style battery, including a deed cycle, are designed with thicker lead and heavier/ thicker walls on the battery. This is due to the vibration that a marine battery has to consume. The battery will last longer and absorb more shock. Optima batteries are dry cell it i remember right, so they dont leek acid or hold saline water. This allows them to be mounted on their side. Correct me if im wrong. I work in the marine industry, this is what the guys from Northen Bat told me about the marine style bats.

Not dry cell, AGM absorbed glass mat.