Falcon

I need to buy a battery, and I'm looking at one of the lightweight models (~6lbs).

A quick search seems to be Odessey or Braille. Anyone have a suggestion or advice?

wallyman424

I ran one of those once... then I forgot to turn my kill switch off one night and came out to a dead battery. I mean DEAD, no jumping, no trickle charge nothing. Just flat DEAD. I run an optima red top now

froggy47

Unless it's a dedicated track car, I would not. Very short reserve. I also use Optima Red

wallyman424

It is a racecar, and so is mine. Still can be annoying though.

jaa1992

IIRC some of the TTA guys at Charlotte couldn't run their cool shirts with the small battery - might be a consideration for you.

Falcon

Yep, that's critical! Thanks for the heads' up!

Aardwolf

I still have the 11 pound Braille in my street/track car and it powers everything with no issues. Deka makes them for less cost. There's more info in my old thread:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-t...tall-done.html

Z06Tracker

That had nothing to do with the battery itself.....Jody, I can get the name and model of my battery for you on Friday. But, it weighs 11-13 lbs. Mark has been running the same batttery for years with no problems, and I have not had any out of mine yet.

drivinhard

I ran a hawker genesis (13.5 lb) from 2001 till CMP May 2011! VIR in july last year started it on it's downward spiral, the heat killed it. it was weak(er) every event after that. March RA I was worried during the red flag I wouldn't be able to start it back up

if you let it sit for about a week with the transponder on/kill switch off, it would kill it. anything up to a week and it would still fire.

even if you don't run a light weight one, just running a full size one (or close) and moving it back inside the car will help the nose weight, and keep it cooler. build a mount for it on the passenger floor.

Jason

I've had bad luck with the small batteries (on 2 different cars) and switched back to full sized one, moved to the right rear.

ScaryFast

Best advice I can give you passed along from my builder:

There are two places you don't skimp to save weight - your cage and your battery.

Run a real battery. You won't miss having to jump your car every time you want to start it.

Z06Tracker

Jody,

The Hawker Genesis or just Genesis is what I am running. Model G12 13AH10EPX or G12 13AH10. The main difference is the EPX is a metal jacket. They are 12 and 11 pounds, respectively. I think Portable Power was the best rate I found.

brkntrxn

James,

I was being my shadetree-redneck self and trying to get a cool suit pump to work off of a trickle charger, not the car. My intent was to have the coolshirt on in the garage and cool down after I got out of the car since I do not have one mounted in my Z06. The trickle chargers did not have enough amperage to run the small DC motor, so I gave up. Since I have the small battery in the car, I was not inclined to run the coolshirt on it while sitting in the garage with the car not running.




Jody,

My battery is an Odyssey PC-680 (14lbs) that I bought for somewhere around $90 from Just Batteries on Hwy 150 across from the NC Racing Museum. Talk to the old man in there and he can get everything for you. Don't try to haggle the guy (like Morris) and ruin my hookups, please. I had to go over there and calm him down and reassure him Corvette racers are not rich, self-deserving a-holes after Morris got off the phone with him one day. You will also need the battery post kit.

Here are the prices he gave me:
PC-680 -- $92.28
ODY-POST -- $10.50
Tax -- $7.97

I then made my own brackets; I can send you pics. I do keep the battery on a Battery Tender any time the car is not at the track.


-Kevin

Z06Tracker

You described yourself accurately at least.....Jody, I did no such thing. I did't even talk to the "old man", as Kevin calls him. Heck, I didn't even think the guy was old. I talked to another guy who was then yelling to the "old man". You defintely want to talk to the "old man" as they other guy does not know anythig.

Kevin's battery is a little cheaper than the one I have.

Falcon

K, coincidentally I called Just Batteries this morning and got some info from them. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I might need some of your pictures. BTW, are you saying I shouldn't mention Morris's name?

Thanks guys for all the info.

jaa1992

Ahh - that esplains it.

I'm probably going to relocate a regular size battery in the rear. I need to shift some weight there to balance things out.
Cool Shirt is on the "oneday" list

spdislife

Installed the 16 lb Deka battery. Less than $90.00 delivered. Car has sat for weeks on end and it fires right up. I do agree the reserve is limited as I left the key on once and within a few hours it was dead....charged it overnight and back in business.

brkntrxn

I am just stating the facts.



Send me a PM and I can give you links to the pics. Or you can come buy the house.



-Kevin

Jaymz

Jody.. for what it's worth I still have a big battery in my racecar and will only switch out to a smaller battery once I dry sump the motor and need the battery location to mount the oil tank.

I have had small batteries in other cars and have had issues as well. ABS really needs a good 12.5 volts to work correctly.

Kubs

I use the smallest cheapest battery I can find at Walmart. I think it was $45 bucks and has been in my car for over two years with no issues. Mine was also driven on the street during that time. I dont think a small battery is worth the price.