Right Starter battery for a GT40

I try to avoid walmart like the plague,but end up buying most of my oil there.The wife and I went there a number of years ago to reprint some pictures,one of them being a wedding picture from over 100+ years ago. Got into a big discussion about copyright laws and ended up walking out mad. Went to Walgreens,the clerk actually helped out. If I recall copyright laws at the time was lifetime +25 years. I can see they need enforce newer professional pictures but if your going to get on your high horse you better know what your talking about. In the end we went and bought our own photo printer so we don't have that trouble again.

By the way, the group 65 fit perfectly and the lid is closed. I did remove the second battery and the switch. Removed a net 100 pounds from the front of the boat and it looks cleaner and starts immediately with no clicking.

Thanks everyone!

It was not advice, it was their policy and becuase they are a big box store their policy does not take into consideration this scenario.

Go back another day and pick up the group 65 automotive battery and check out. What they don't know won't hurt them

Go figure Pete,they really look cheap I'll have to look what the dealer has put on see if they are trying to raise the bottom line

They were buying something at work really cheap, Ameristar I think,went thru 2 in a week. My time lost,2 tows and the mechanics time. Our mechanic started getting Motorcraft's for everything,problems gone. Don't know if they are still good though,you know how all companies can squeeze a dime,what's good one day might not be the next. Just found out AcDelco came out with an economy oil filter the hard way,they have a suffix E in the part number. Stamped end plate ,plastic media retainer,I'm taking it back----

Good idea Gary, can't drive two at the same time haha. The truck battery is still going strong at 5 years. Hoping for 10 out of it.I have never really had a daily driver long enough to kill a battery.

The 67 has had 2 batteries since I bought it in 02 one of which being in it before I purchased it. Walllll mart battery. It died over at the car show because the voltage regulator went out at the cruise night. Picked up a Car-quest job over there and it still cranks it right up every spring.

Food for though, ever since I have been working at N3 I went with a company called world wide battery. They are manufactured by Johnson controls like everyone else in the world. in 2.5 years and probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 group 24 and 65 batteries (all 1000CA or greater) I have yet to warranty one single battery. These mostly all power stupid sound systems too.

We do disconnect each boats batteries for winter lay up and give them a charge in the spring if the customer opts to have a summerization checklist completed.

Before me we used to use a lot of interstate batteries. I've seen a decent amount of those come back under warranty or bad out of warranty.

I tried the 1000 amp battery also and had very poor service. I also talked with the battery rep and got the same story. The really big batteries don't have room for proper support inside and in rough water the plates can touch each other causing failure. They don't do well in the pounding. I now run a 700 amp now with no issues. I don't have a high watt stereo either so I don't have the big need. I do disconnect the battery every winter when I store the boat. A perfect boat set up would be two 600 amp batteries and have them on an isolator so you could switch from one to the other and always have a full back up.
I have had kids go down to the boat on weekend camping trips and relax in the boat, then leave the stereo running over night when they leave. It is a bummer to have a dead battery on a boat. Now with Cel phones and Ipads everywhere it seems people are always looking for a place to charge these and boats are available on camp trips. We are miles from the launch so cars are not an option on our camp/ski trips.
I have added a 800W beach battery to our equipment list now to avoid the boat being used, it has multiple usb plug ins for charging the toys and doubles to run the blender for drinks.

Hahahhaha. He just wanted to make it well lubricated!!!

Back when we pulled my 73 911 out of its storage we drained about 22 quarts out of it. The thing was a dry sump and has a capacity of 11 quarts. No wonder they could never get it to stop blowing oil smoke out of the tailpipe

Joel, I keep my mine on wood work benches haha.

Steve, better get on it and get it done!!

I have seen my fair share of junk batteries with our family car dealership back home. 9 times out of ten if it was a dead car it was either a duralast or a reconditioned battery.

8122pbrainard wrote: backfoot100 wrote: the old one just sat on the garage floor for two years (on a rubber mat). Eddie, Don't tell me you believe batteries still need to be stored on something to insulate them!!

You know, it's funny- my dad was in my garage a few weeks ago and saw my boat batteries sitting on the floor directly. He very confidently said "you know, you have to get those batteries onto some wood blocks or they will discharge". Even though I knew he was totally wrong about this, I did it anyway so that the next time he came into the garage he would see them up on the blocks. Sometimes you just have to show pops you're still listening! I didn't have the heart to tell him the advice was outdated.

phatsat67 wrote: I guess I drive the boat often and hard enough it goes to bed in the winter with a nice full charge. Disconnect the terminals obviously but never take it out.

I too feel when driven, they will have a full charge. This last New Years up north, I did go down to the boat house and pulled the battery out of the X. It hasn't been in the water nor on a charger for over 2 years so I was concerned about a self discharge taking the level down to the point where it would freeze and break. I sure would not want acid in the bottom of a wood boat. Anyway, pulled the battery, hooked up the charger, it went up to 8 amps and then immediately down to about 2 amps. No self discharge   with this 13 year old battery! I wish I could remember the brand!

Same with me Pete, well except this winter. I did put mine on the tractor trickle charger for a few hours when I took the boat apart since it was right beside it.

I guess I drive the boat often and hard enough it goes to bed in the winter with a nice full charge. Disconnect the terminals obviously but never take it out.

Unless you get an insane deal on the optima and the standard battery lasts 10 years the optima would have to last 20 years to make financial sense. Although I get a pretty big charge out of seeing how long of a service life I can get out of things.

I guess I still believed in the proverbial "Santa Clause" as well..

Thanks