Hi, my battery is dead and I need a new one. I did a search with the keywords light weight battery and didnt come up with jack.. what's a good light weight battery that's also powerful. I was thinking of something like an Optima battery but I picked one up and it fealt just as heavy.. has anyone ever used a light weight battery, and how much weight did you save over the OEM battery..

thanks

 

Go to a store and lift a bunch of different ones. IMO though, the optima red top = best.

 

Lift em all? Well I just thought that maybe there were actual batteries made specifically to be lighter for racing purposes.. what do the big dog dragsters use?

The Optima that I picked up had a yellow top if I remember..

 

you can use a smaller battery if you want to cut weight but you need to pay attention to how many cranking amps the battery has, the more the better.

 

Ideally, if they ever make them, a Lithium Ion battery is like 1/5 the weight of a lead acid battery for the same output.

 

Exactly. You use a smaller battery, and therefore save weight. The "racing" batteries aren't necessarily lighter per series size, but rather more powerful for their size so that you can use a smaller battery. The racing batteries tend to be more durable, less prone to leaking, mountable in different positions, faster to charge, and hold their charge longer so that your battery doesn't die between races that may be months apart.

The Optima Red Top and Hawker Odyssey are probably the two most common racing batteries.
http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/index.html
http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/index.html

 

I used a group 51 battery instead of the stock Group 34. Saved 9 pounds, and I didn't need to change battery cable ends, it starts the car fine, and same cost as the type 34.

Sky

 

Those Odessey batteries are so small. But I don't think they weigh too much less than stock.

A sealed battery would be a lot better for mounting in the rear bins.

 

Group 52 is the smallest, but I could not find one anywhere.....

 

The odyssey battery weighs 15 pounds compared to 50 or so for a stocker. They are much lighter.

 

i just prefer to use the old batterys as dumbells anyways.

 

On average, how much do Optima's weigh? In comparison to a standard Battery?

 

I have the hawk 680 battery. It's really small...I think it's about 7in long, 3 wide and 6 high. I think CCA is somewhere around 400. Either way, it's more than enough to crank over 79 cubes. Actually, it cranked just as hard as my DieHard gold.

Plus it's sealed....no worries about leaks, gas fumes..etc..etc. Plus they can supply the rated CCA for a longer period of time.

 

I don't think there is any weight advantage at all. They are also big and expensive... So they are pretty much worthless for the most part. Besides the fact that they are sealed.

 

Plus Optima's are not available in a Type51

 

http://www.stealth316.com/2-dynabatt.htm

http://performancedistributors.com/specials.htm
http://performancedistributors.com/batteries.htm