electrical system

[kennyfrncs]

this past weekend, a large group from blue grass 4x4 club, came down to smokey ridge for a weekend of cleaning trails, camping and cooking,..saturday after cleaning trails, we had a big cookout, thanks to mike(gramcracker) and his big smoker cooker....after we all got our feel of great food, we all lounged around the camp fire til about 8:30 when someone mentioned a night ride...so 10 of us loaded up in 4 jeeps, and headed out..about 30 minutes into the ride, all **** broke loose...THE WINCHING BEGAN...with 2 jeeps having winches, i had my jeep in the front and the other jeep with the winch in the rear..in a period of about 1 hour and a half, the rear jeep had made 4 pulls, then his power went out and left his winch useless...i made about 10 pulls with 4 being maximum distance cable pull, using a pulley..2 of the pulls resulted in uprooting 2 8in, across trees...everyone was amazed, including myself, how well my 5 year old duel red top optimum batteries held up...so my question to you all, is how would your electrical system hold up under such extreme conditions? this situation could happen to any of us , going off road...would your electrical system hold up???..................k-built

[pirate_over50]

I don't know.....would it? :) Kenny I've had real good luck with my NAPA gel cell battery. I bought it cheaper than Optima and it hasn't let me down yet.

[todd]

Do you think that there is an advantage with either the red top or the yellow top optimum. Troy and I were using our winches to pull down a tobacco barn this past Saturday and the subject came up. I have a red top in my truck. Todd

[kennyfrncs]

Do you think that there is an advantage with either the red top or the yellow top optimum. Troy and I were using our winches to pull down a tobacco barn this past Saturday and the subject came up. I have a red top in my truck. Todd


each color was designed for a particular purpose...i personally dont remember what they were designed for..you could parobably go to the optimum web site for this info..i bought my red top because they were the cheapest...i didnt really start this thread to comapre batteries...the intent was to make you aware of how important a good electrical system is when winching...i personally think to get your max performance out of a winch, or any electrical component that draws huge amounts of power..its a must to have dual batteries........kenny

[YJason]

IMO: good high CCA (800+) battery/batteries are half the battle, the charging system (alt w/150 amp+) as a whole needs to be setup for winching and wired for high amp draw.

In other words what good is having 2 batteries if you only have a 60 or 90 amp alt?

This is a XD9000i amp draw:
LB Pull Amps
0 70 amps
2000 180 amps
4000 255 amps
6000 330 amps
8000 415 amps
9000 460 amps

I've used my winch alot and have never had an issue. I have a 925 CCA truck battery and a stock 90A alt ( soon to be replaced with a 165A) and heavy gauge *** (positive) and neg wires. (the censoring is really getting f***ing ridiculous )

Just my .02

[kids88yj]

I don't know.....would it? :) Kenny I've had real good luck with my NAPA gel cell battery. I bought it cheaper than Optima and it hasn't let me down yet.


x2 same set up with 90 amp alt.

[Andy's03]

I think my electrical system would be ok as I have a HO 140amp alt. My battery situation leaves a little to be desired but I am not planning a dual battery system as I am into getting my rig as lite as possible.

[andrew383]

Boy what i night that was :D

hey kenny what does that "splitter" look like thats on top of your battery?
I contacted wrangler about it and i didnt even think to look at it before we left :rolleyes:

[belltom]

I am running a 140 amp alt with an Optima yellow. I have only used it a few times with the winch, but even with the engine turned off, it had plenty of power.

[Paul E]

I run a Napa Exide Orbital Gel battery too. NO Problems at all with it.

Run an optima red in my Avalanche. So far, so good.

Any why in the world is this thread in the Site Related Questions thread? Moving to Communications/Electronics.

[Bob XJ]

I have dual yellow top batteries. One battery is not connected to anything so if I kill the main battery, I can throw a switch and I have a fully charged battery. It’s plenty beefed up and I’ve winched heavily when there is mud involved. But I do some remote wheeling and feel more comfortable with two batteries.