optima in the car

I have a question on how to wire a optima battery inside my jimmy and this looks like the place to be. for starters I have a 3 farad cap. and it does't do crap for my system so I wanted to try a battery. My friend swithed from a cap. to a batt. and it sounds alot better.So how would I do this?

What do you mean you want to know how to wire it up?

Is this going to be your primary or secondary battery?

Even though Optima says that their battery is a sealed type battery, I do not recommend putting an Optima in the passenger compartment. All batteries must have vents in them to release built up gas pressure caused by the chemical reaction that actually creates electricity. These gases that are released can be deadly if you are exposed to them for too long, like on a long road trip with the A/C or Vent set to "recirculate".

About wiring it up. I recommend using a 0~2 gauge wire wo connect it to your primary battery, if this is your secondary battery.

If this is going to be your primary battery, just take the old one out and put the optima in its place.

If this is going to be your secondary battery, you must realize that having towo batteries is a little bit "hard" on the starter and/or alternator during starup.

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second batt.

Where are you going to be putting it? Will it be in a battery case?

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Poormanq45 wrote:

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Where are you going to be putting it? Will it be in a battery case?

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it will be in a battery case and it will be in the back of my jimmy

Ok, that should be good enough. When you get everything hooked up, I'll help in a sec, If you happen to smell something funny, like electrical kind of smell, when you have the windows closed for awhile and the car on, open a window for a few seconds to allow the built up gases to escape.

Ok, is your primary battery still in the engine compartment?

If so, then you are going to want to "run" two 0 gauge wires from where the front battery is, to the optima. You can do this by either routing it through the firewall, hiding under carpet or something, and then to the back where the optima is. Or you can run the wire underneath the car. Keep it as close to the frame as possible. And when you get it to the back, you will either have to drill a hole to pass the wires through, or if you're lucky enough, there may be a rubber gromet already there that you can use. For ease of installation, I suggest doing the through firewall method. For cleanness, I suggest the under car method

If your primary battery is already in the back near where the optima will be, I suggest just using 2 gause wire between the two, sinse the distance will be short.

I don't mean to make you feel dumb, but which ever method you us, always hook the negative to negative and positive to positive terminals. I've seen a few people cross the + and - and have their batteries explode.


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Poormanq45 wrote:

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Ok, that should be good enough. When you get everything hooked up, I'll help in a sec, If you happen to smell something funny, like electrical kind of smell, when you have the windows closed for awhile and the car on, open a window for a few seconds to allow the built up gases to escape.

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Uh, that is called out-gassing and it is very dangerous.  It is hydrogen gas and it WILL explode.  DO NOT use a battery inside a vehicle, and never use a battery unless it is properly vented.  Waiting for an "electrical kind of smell" and then opening a window is very bad advice indeed.  It's like saying wait for your pants to catch on fire and then put it out.  Hopefully you'll catch it in time before something important gets burned.  Not a good idea! 

If you use a second battery, install it properly.  If you are not sure what that means, GET HELP FROM A PRO.

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Yeah, sorry that was bad advise.

But Optima does say that their batteries can be used within the car. If something does get damaged from this, one might be able to get Optima to have to pay for the damages.

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