Does a Optima RedTop Fit in Rear Bin relocation ?
 

Hi, I currently have one of those boat battery's but it currently only holds 12v's and as you may know its barely enough to turn over the engine I think its a dead cell inside the battery b/c after playing 2 min of songs and trying to start i only get 10v's anyways I decided to just get a optima instead of this everstart crud. Anyways I do know the optima red top is large then the standard boat battery so I am wondering if it will fit in the rear bin. Thanks in advance.

I would think so. I'll let you know soon as I'm having mine relocated to the rear bin with my 20B conversion.

Absolutely not, unless you want to hack away at the bins in order to fit a full size optima.

I had to cut the bin to make my yellow top fit.

I have the full size red top in my rear bin, you need to cut the bottom of the bin out and it will fit.

Yes, you have to cut the crap out of it. I even trimmed around the lid so it wouldn't be such a huge pain in the ass to take out.

But it doesnt get in the way of the sidwalls ? Just need to cut the bottom of bin ? damn I was trying to avoid cutting.

You're going to have to cut like a motherf#cker, including the side walls, unless you go with a smaller battery.

You have to cut about half way up or so from the bottom all the way around ... not just the bottom.

I have a red top in my bins. I cut the bottom off the bin about 4" down from the lid..

Will the yellowtop slide in better without cutting walls but just the bottom. I mean is the yellowtop smaller ? Cuz I thought it was.

I think they're the same size. I did my relocation with the yellow top and put it in before I put the bins back together. When it died on me and I went to replace it I couldn't get the fugger out and had to take everything apart again to get the bins out and lift them over the battery. I didn't want to cut any more than I did.

I've got a red top in there now. I put it in the same way, since I didn't use a box bolted down. But there's no way that thing will fall out in a crash. Just makes changing the battery a 1 hour job.. But hopefully this one will last for quite a while (previous yellow top was bought used).

Is this the same yellow top Optima you guys are talking about?

http://www.autobarn.net/yetopcopo51r.html

My driver's bin is cut out from about 3 inches down. After doing that, there's plenty of room. I wouldn't call it "pretty," but it's certainly functional and better than mounting it in the hatch where it's exposed.

Could sombody post a pic of their hacked up bin. Becuse I think I will have to do the same.

I will try to post one tomorrow for you.

Yea I would definitly like to see what a "hacked up" bin looks like I just bought my red top yesterday and want to mount it today while i drain my oil and coolant for change.

The easiest and cleanest would be to just take out the bins (and everything forward of them so you can actually get them out). And turn them upside down on the ground and take a dremel around it about 3" or so from the top. Not too difficult at all.

You dont even need to take them out to use the dremel ... i did it with the bins still in there and after it was cut all the way around you just need to pull the bottom section up through the top of the bin.

my yellow top fits in there just fine

mike

I put an Optima Yellow Top 51R in the bin with NO CUTTING

I used a heat gun to slightly widen the bottom part of the bin and indent the inside of the lid to allow the lid to close completely.

I'll get a picture up in the next day or so, it isn't pretty but it does work.