should I get a deep-cycle battery ?

[RustyShackleford]

The battery on my 2006 is pretty much dead (leaving the headlites

on for 5min drains it to where car will not start). Seems kinda early.

I bought the car used in 2008, so I assume it's the stock battery.

 

Anyhow, I do lots of car-camping road-trips, so I have the car sitting

with the stereo going, interior lites on (although they are all LEDs now),

and maybe an inverter powering a small fan or something. So I'm

thinking I killed the battery prematurely by deeply discharging it

(although I never ran it close to dead, AFAIK).

 

So I wonder if I should get a deep-cycle battery as a replacement,

since I intend to keep doing car camping ? Is there any DOWN side

to a deep-cycle battery, other than the cost ? Should I just consider

a regular battery with a very high reserve capacity ?

[Gire]

If you run the things off the battery with the car turned off, then a deep cycle battery sounds like what you want.

 

The benefits of deep cycle liek an Optima yellow top are their ability to be re-charged / jump started over and over again if necessary.

 

And they hold a lot more stored juice than a standard battery, so you could do what you want to do for longer, and have a little more insurance that it will crank on the next time without fail.

 

 

We used to run these at sound offs and play the car stereos all afternoon at big volume and then fire the car up at the end of the day and drive home.

[RustyShackleford]

If you run the things off the battery with the car turned off...

 

Yes.

 

The benefits of deep cycle liek an Optima yellow top are their ability to be re-charged / jump started over and over again if necessary.

 

They certainly are expensive, but I guess you pay to play.

 

Also, a review I read said they need some modification to

the charging system (a different/higher charging voltage

presumably) to get fully charged.

[Gire]

No, I don't think so.

 

 

Back in the day we ran beefy aftermarket alternators in conjunction with the deep cycle batteries but that was because we were powering 1000-2000 watt systems.

 

getting a larger alternator on your stock Outback (assuming you don't have an aftermarket stereo system with huge wattage) is overkill.

[RustyShackleford]

Any other/cheaper deep-cycle batteries I might want to consider ?

[Gire]

No idea.

 

Best to google the term.

 

 

Lots of car enthusiasts like the Braille light wieght battery but it's certainly not a deep cycle.

[RustyShackleford]

Any other/cheaper deep-cycle batteries I might want to consider ?

 

Optima Yellow Top and Sear Diehard Platinum seem to be

the most common contenders. Any opinions between these two ?

[RustyShackleford]

Local parts guy said he talked to Deka engineer, and he recs against

dual-purpose. Says to have a separate deep-cycle for camping, and

isolator switch to disconnect it when using for camping, connect it

into car's electrical system for charging when driving.

 

That's tempting. THey have OEM starting battery for less than half the

price of OPtima Yellow Top or Diehard Platinum. But where would I put

the separate deep cycle ?

[RustyShackleford]

Went with Optima YellowTop, after finding this awesome deal:

 

http://www.diversifiedbattery.com/d35yellowbatterytop.html