Lightweight Battery for track use

[03whitegsr]

Here is a lightweight battery setup I put in a couple days ago and thought a few on here might be interested. It is a DEKA EXT12 battery that weighs a little over 9 pounds according the the manufacturer. The bracket is under a pound.






This is a car I drive daily and use for auto-X. So far, it has been fine in the warm weather. The only modification to the car was cutting the battery post clamp off, which is easily adapted to work with the stock battery in the winter.

Anybody have the weight of the stock battery? I'm curious how much weight it cut off the car.

[tiFreak]

mind sharing where you got this from? the battery in my track car just died earlier today so I figure if I'm replacing it I might as well upgrade

[mike156]

The bracket I bent up in the garage. If there was interest, I could send a drawing out for quote and have a few made on the cheap at a local sheetmetal shop and get them hard anodized. Otherwise, I could bend you up one in my garage, wouldn't be as nice as something made by a sheetmetal shop though.

The Battery I got off the internet somewhere for like $70, It was about a year ago when I bought it. I think O'Rileys carries them though as a different name. They are a "Powersports" AGM battery.

http://www.dekabatteries.com/default.aspx?pageid=510

[mohaughn]

You can buy them at Advance Auto parts. They are identical in specs and sizes to more expensive "racing" batteries, just a shorter warranty period. They are sold as motorcycle/tractor/4 wheeler batteries.

Bigcrank is another name brand for them. I've been running the etx14. They only last for about 12-18 months before they die out on you. Even less if you don't regularly run the car or keep them on a trickle charger. But they work, and are much cheaper than Braille.

[mike156]

Ha, I just realized I have two user names on here apparently.

Anyway, yeah, supposedly DEKA is the manufacturer of Braille and a couple other race batteries out there as well as some of the big name brands in normal autoparts stores. Or maybe they are just another race battery company putting their names on somebody else's battery?

[zoner]

Originally Posted by 03whitegsr

Anybody have the weight of the stock battery? I'm curious how much weight it cut off the car.

Most lead acid batteries for our cars (Group 91) are in the 35-40 pound range, IIRC.

[mohaughn]

Originally Posted by mike156

Ha, I just realized I have two user names on here apparently.

Anyway, yeah, supposedly DEKA is the manufacturer of Braille and a couple other race batteries out there as well as some of the big name brands in normal autoparts stores. Or maybe they are just another race battery company putting their names on somebody else's battery?

East Penn manufacturing company is who makes them. DEKA is the name they use for any direct sales. I've compared my 'big crank' to a braille and they are physically identical. There was a honda site I came across a few years ago when I started to use these batteries where one of the members had the right equipment to test various aspects of different batteries. They found that these batteries usually far exceeded the rated cold cranking amps, and they could not find anything in their testing to indicate that the braille was a better battery. I want to say somebody claiming to be from Braille even joined in the discussion and tried arguing how the braille was better and that is why they could offer a better warranty. But basically, you are buying an extra year warranty in my eyes when you buy the braille.

The price has gone up as people realize these are good batteries. I want to say my first one was maybe 60$, and they are over 80$ now at the local auto parts store.

If your car is a daily driver, they work fine. If your car sits for any period of time, make sure to use a battery tender. Also, if you car has any unusual battery drains when off, it may kill the battery quickly. Definitely can't leave the lights on and expect this battery to work after a few hours. Once these batteries are drained, they typically don't come back to life.

I use these terminals so I don't have to modify the stock battery wiring. http://www.batterymart.com/p-odyssey-sae-terminals.html

[tiFreak]

hm, I only drive my track car a couple times a month and I park too far away from the garage to plug a battery tender in, might just order up a stock replacement battery, seems like the easiest solution

[03whitegsr]

Simply pulling off one lead while it sits in storage would be all it takes. That's all I ever do on my project EVO and it sits for weeks or months at a time. Reconnect the battery and it fires right up.

There are lots of little things on a car that get power all the time. It's not big deal day to day, but I have had full size batteries not want to start the car even after the car sitting as little as a week.

[03whitegsr]

As a follow up regarding short term storage. I parked the car this weekend as I was out of town. Last I drove it was Thursday around 11:00 in the morning. Jumped in yesterday (Tuesday) around 2:00 in the afternoon and the car fired right up. Didn't act like it lost any charge at all over those 5 days. I was concerned even a few days might cause trouble but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I do have the interior light turned off so a door left open won't kill the battery and I don't have a stereo in the car. Lots of stereos have terrible leakage while the car is turned off so that can be a big unknown.

[03whitegsr]

Another updated.

I've been using it all summer without any kind of trouble. I'm debating leaving it in the car for the winter as it has been rock solid thus far and I'm curious if it can actually get the job done in below 0F weather.

I'd hate to get stranded out side a ski resort this winter though as I've experienced -20F temps up there.

[Dan I]

I recommend against it. These compact batteries dont have the cold cranking amps (CCA) that the full size batts have. It will strand you, bet on it.

[03whitegsr]

Ha, I'm a fan of trying things out to get a good first hand experience. I used what amounts to the next size up battery (PC680) all winter in a previous car without any issue so I was curious to see how much of an impact the next smaller size would actually have.

Based on this morning though, it's significant. The low was 45F last night and when I went to start it this morning it was 46. It was struggling to get the job done. Another 5-10 degrees and I don't think it could do it.

Hopefully temps stay up enough this week I can leave it in there until the last auto-X of the season. Then I'll swap off the RS-3s and the battery and be ready for winter.

[greenmachine72]

Nice write up, I think I will have to to do this, get everything ready for spring when it gets warmer