I was looking for lightweight battery options. The local autozone has Lawn & Garden batteries with 350cca for just $55 bucks:
That's half the crank capacity of the stock battery ... but it's fully 1/4 the cost and less than 1/2 the weight:
Is this crazy? The car is mostly stripped. Runs on dual Weber carbs. Not much electrical load other than the starter.
Check farm stores if you have any near, rural king routinely has similar batteries for 17.99
I ran a lawnmower battery in my Neon for years.
Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:Check farm stores if you have any near, rural king routinely has similar batteries for 17.99
Thanks for the tip. Not many farms around here. But I'll check.
parker said:I ran a lawnmower battery in my Neon for years.
The terminals are different. I'm assuming there's an adapter? I'm not comfortable cutting the stock battery cables.
I've been running a powersports AGM battery in the race car for years. It weighs so little and is totally able to keep up with the demands of an EFI engine and a cool shirt pump and electric fan. As it is a race car we have it mounted in the right rear on custom cables so we put ring terminals on the cables which bolt down fine to the terminals. Sure, you can't leave the key on to run the fan for 20 minutes, but it has never been a problem at all.
at Tractor supply the cheapest I can find is $39.95
LanEvo said:Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:Check farm stores if you have any near, rural king routinely has similar batteries for 17.99
Thanks for the tip. Not many farms around here. But I'll check.
parker said:I ran a lawnmower battery in my Neon for years.
The terminals are different. I'm assuming there's an adapter? I'm not comfortable cutting the stock battery cables.
On our Q45 Challenge car we just used a 3/8ths bolt to adapt the terminals to the lawn battery. Each car will be different.
Two of the 7.4v lipo r/c sticks in series is 14.8v and can start a car, I have a pair that were $35, 5.5ah, weigh almost nothing in comparison to a lead acid.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TC5RSBL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
They will not get fully recharged by the alternator at 14.4v, so you'd need to deal with that.
The lower voltage LifePo will get fully charged, I use those in my Prius. One of my Prius had a small Optima battery, so I just put that in the mx-3 racecar,
it is still quite powerful but about half the weight of a full size lead acid. Not cheap if you buy them new.
I would also note that I've bought a couple lawn garden batteries and the cheap ones are cheap because they have a lot less lead in them,
you can really tell the difference when you pick up the $20 ones vs $40 ones.
+1 on the powersports batteries. Have used those in a couple of Miatas and the Exocet. Was a little concerned about the 2nd year in the Exocet but it was fine. Walmart generally has a bunch in stock. Pick your size.
I just bought a 300 CCA garden tractor battery for the Midlana. Hopefully it has enough juice to spin the 2.4. The price, size and weight was too appealing to pass up.
My only experience with these was with an autocross Mustang with a tiny Optima mounted on the passenger floor.
The onwer told me, basically, if the engine doesn't catch right away, you will need a jump start.
I bought (at great expense) a Group 34 for the rallycrossin' RX-7, because it was the most reserve capacity I could fit in my battery box. Yeah it weighs a lot, but my wimpy 80a alternator cannot keep up with my cooling fans, and I have had events where my battery as drained enough after 12 runs to need a jump start to be able to get home, with a group 24 battery.
Nothing sucks more than missing a run because your engine did not want to start and you ran the battery down and you couldn't get your junk jump-started in time. At that point you may as well just have stayed home!
LanEvo said:Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:Check farm stores if you have any near, rural king routinely has similar batteries for 17.99
Thanks for the tip. Not many farms around here. But I'll check.
parker said:I ran a lawnmower battery in my Neon for years.
The terminals are different. I'm assuming there's an adapter? I'm not comfortable cutting the stock battery cables.
I just ran a longer bolt on the end of the stock cable and put that through the hole in the terminal.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Nothing sucks more than missing a run because your engine did not want to start and you ran the battery down and you couldn't get your junk jump-started in time. At that point you may as well just have stayed home!
My thoughts as well.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:My only experience with these was with an autocross Mustang with a tiny Optima mounted on the passenger floor.
The onwer told me, basically, if the engine doesn't catch right away, you will need a jump start.
I bought (at great expense) a Group 34 for the rallycrossin' RX-7, because it was the most reserve capacity I could fit in my battery box. Yeah it weighs a lot, but my wimpy 80a alternator cannot keep up with my cooling fans, and I have had events where my battery as drained enough after 12 runs to need a jump start to be able to get home, with a group 24 battery.
Nothing sucks more than missing a run because your engine did not want to start and you ran the battery down and you couldn't get your junk jump-started in time. At that point you may as well just have stayed home!
Holy cow! What fans were pulling that much juice? Or was your alternator bad?
In reply to parker :
Stock fans from a 300M. They draw 75a when both are pulling on high speed. They also WORK, unlike cheesy parts store Spal stuff.
I run lawnmower batteries in both Lemons cars.
I run a power sports battery in the Abomination.
None of them have ever let me down.
nimblemotorsports said:Two of the 7.4v lipo r/c sticks in series is 14.8v and can start a car, I have a pair that were $35, 5.5ah, weigh almost nothing in comparison to a lead acid.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TC5RSBL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
They will not get fully recharged by the alternator at 14.4v, so you'd need to deal with that.
The lower voltage LifePo will get fully charged, I use those in my Prius. One of my Prius had a small Optima battery, so I just put that in the mx-3 racecar,
it is still quite powerful but about half the weight of a full size lead acid. Not cheap if you buy them new.
I would also note that I've bought a couple lawn garden batteries and the cheap ones are cheap because they have a lot less lead in them,
you can really tell the difference when you pick up the $20 ones vs $40 ones.
Just a quick caveat here as someone who messes about with RC stuff a fair bit. Rc LiPo's are very volatile and do not deal well with impact, over or under charging, or being shorted out, and can react with violent shooting flame. Be very careful using them in a car.
Just as reference, the ones i use for rc planes live in a steel box clamped in my press when not in use.
He said "Just as reference, the ones i use for rc planes live in a steel box clamped in my press when not in use."
Thanks for that info , something you would not read in an ebay ad 1
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
As small and affordable as they are, I was thinking of just buying a second to keep on hand as a spare.
What battery do the jump starters have ?
and would they be strong enough ?
I was thinking of just getting the battery to power my light duty 12v winch to pull VWs onto the trailer,
In reply to californiamilleghia :
I have those LiPo batteries from amazon I use for jumping cars and powering the winches on my trailer.
Can do about 2 cars before they need recharged.
I agree LiPo can be dangerous, LiFePo is much safer, harder to find them cheap at the power ratings of LiPo.
Noone has mentioned that Walmart has some lawn garden batteries for $22?
The smaller displacement, lower compression, and quicker your engine generally starts anyway, the better it will work.
Actually, since most hybrids dont use the 12v battery to crank the engine at all (ive owned one of the exceptions, but MOST) you can pretty much always replace those 12v batteries with lawnmower batteries. I put a lawnmower battery in the Highlander Hybrid i sold to my cousin and it's been fine for well over a year.
Used a Odyssey AGM battery for a Goldwing in my racecar for ages. It's still starting my Moto Guzzi reliably 10 years later.
We tested it out in my co-worker's drag race Pontiac Catalina. It would crank and fire a 468CID Pontiac V8 with 10:1 compression, no problems.
Odysseys are light too.
For powersports batteries the Deka ETX series is our go-to for AGM there are multiple variants, you can also search the similar part numbers at any battery retailer. The ETX14 and ETX14L we use in our jet skis and they are bulletproof. If they go low in voltage use a conditioning charger and they come back to life. There are some higher CCA versions.
Compared to an Odyssey PC680, the ETX14 has more CCA (220 vs 170), is lighter (12 lbs vs 16 lbs), way cheaper ($80 vs $130+), and can be found at any battery retailer usually.
You can use these terminal adapters with them since they use the same M6x1.0 bolt.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ODY-3217-0006
Most tractor lawn batteries are not AGM, something to note.
Vigo (Forum Supporter) said:Noone has mentioned that Walmart has some lawn garden batteries for $22?
Part number ?
Thanks
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