lawn and garden battery in a car?

Thread from 2011:

so i'm sure this has been discussed before... but... lawn and garden battery in a non daily driven "project" car... any problems with that?... i keep reading conflicting info... so from other GRMer experience... go for it?... shy away? that is the $20 question (literally... $25 for the lawn and garden $45 for the cheapo car battery) thanks guys mark

er I will ad... no extra electronics in the car/truck... it might get an aftermarket head unit and non stock speakers... but nothing to truly tax the battery.

why not? what's the worst that can happen?

I've seen people do it before. I was going to use one in the Corvair, but my father in law gave me the right battery for free.

12 volts is 12 volts. As long as you have enough amps, I don't see why not.

ive used a 12v 17ah SLA from a wheel chair in my challenge opel gt. it had a 2.3T in it. it would start it just fine.

super compact, mount in any position and very light weight

jhaas what did that cost?...

I'm currently using a $20 lawn and garden battery in my MGB. It's more than enough to crank it repeatedly. I have a disconnect wired in and it doesn't have any electricals other than lights, gauges and ignition.

We used one in our red Miata for the $2008-10 Challenges. It worked just fine, you know...for a Challenge car. If it's a vehicle you plan on using more than just that, I would get a real car battery. When the car was driven on the street, it had a regular battery in it.

First time I saw a Miata Battery I said "Thats a lawn and garden battery that's vented!"

Like Gearheadotaku said, 12v is 12v. Its just a matter if it has the cranking amps to do the job. And if it does, no guarantees on how long it'll work.

We ran 2 lawn and garden batterys on our race boat for the 24V system. lasted us a season and still used them in other applications but we would only run them a season.

I don't see a problem as long as you are ok with the fact you won't be able to run a billion amps off of it and it will die sooner.

jhaas wrote: ive used a 12v 17ah SLA from a wheel chair in my challenge opel gt. it had a 2.3T in it. it would start it just fine. super compact, mount in any position and very light weight

Looks like the Braille battery.

I ran a lawn and garden battery in my Locost, powering only the basic car including MegaSquirt. I'd get maybe two summers of use out of them before they would die. They don't seem to enjoy the "car" environment (Heat? Vibration? Constant use?). I switched last summer to a Miata battery (wider, but all else the same size) as it had a 5 year warranty instead of the tractor battery's 1 year.

SilverFleet wrote: We used one in our red Miata for the $2008-10 Challenges. It worked just fine, you know...for a Challenge car. If it's a vehicle you plan on using more than just that, I would get a real car battery. When the car was driven on the street, it had a regular battery in it.

lol, it never got a real battery. Only time I would take it out was when I had to mow the lawn. I even ran it in the winter when it was 15 degrees out. Cold cranking was not the greatest. My MegaSquirt cold cranking setting were never perfect and the battery would give me 2-3 chances to start the car.

donalson wrote: jhaas what did that cost?...

$44.65 on amazon. ebay, around $30 flea market, $5.00

I've had one in my street Miata for four years now. Just put the 2nd one in last summer. Most of the guys I run Spec Miata with run them as well. My riding mower takes the same one, but the terminals are reversed.

I've had the same one in my Shadow, which was used, for years. I used to daily drive it, it's been raced, sits through winters, etc. Never a problem.

Why not get a miata or civic battery? They're also pretty small, and they're a regular car battery.

I run a lawn tractor battery in my Miata because it was $18, and what appeared to be the same battery with automotive posts was $120. I think the post adapters were $4.

In reply to donalson:

Do yourself ONE major favor. Tune the start. So that it's will fire IMMEDIATELY. do that on a regular battery, if you have one.

After that, if you did that well, then the light battery will be ok.

Well, assuming you can even tune the car....

good point alfa... I do recall that cold start settings are a bit touchy to figure out/deal with.

a normal battery out back would prob be good though with how front heavy the s10 is.

Ran a lawnmower battery in my Neon for a few years. No problems.

I run cheap lawn mower batteries in the Lemons cars. The Abomination has a Deka Motorcycle battery in it. 

synthia said:

Hey i need to buy a chainsaw sharpener which should be consistent and easy to use i read a post https://topreviewedten.com/best-electric-chainsaw-sharpener/ where i found two best chainsaw sharpener like oregon 511 and timber tuff Bwm. Please suggest me which one to buy.

Whichever one I need to power my canoe.  That one.

Wow. This thread is a revisit to an awful lot of community that is no longer with us. 

But yeah, Synthia can paddle away in her canoe.