Optima Red Top battery - fit

scoobysnax · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:15 pm

I just installed a new Optima Red Top battery – group 34/78 – and my battery cable terminals don’t fit correctly. The terminals were a little too close to the center so I had to bend the cable terminal mounts from the original 90 degree bend to about a 60 degree bend. Right now they fit and they are secure however I’m worried about two things. First, after bending the terminals I’m worried they might crack which could cause an arc and then a fire. I’m also worried that since they are sort of pressing against the top side edge of the battery that they might shake loose.

So my questions are – did anyone else have this same problem and what did you do? Should I change out my battery cable terminals or do I not need to worry about it?

DryBones · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:20 pm

I just went Red Top 2 weeks ago. no problems here. You sure you got the right battery?

callaway · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:27 pm

I had to bend the terminal slightly out of 90* when I put the red top in... have had no issues with it since installing...

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:28 pm

I ran a Red Top until it died at 6 months of age 2 weeks ago.
but I had to do the same thing no problem as long as you bent it slowly and did not crack it while bending.
Hope you have better luck with it than I did.

scoobysnax · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:40 pm

According to the Optima Wed site and the store I bought it at I did. Also, the user guide the battery came with shows the 34
http://www.optimabatteries.com/find_you ... _popup.php

A 2004 Liberty Limited you have three options –

Group #25 (8025-160) RedTop®; Battery;
Group #34 (8002-002) RedTop®; Battery;
Group #D34 (8012-021) YellowTop®; Deep Cycle Battery;

I got the 34 HOWEVER I got the 34/78. The only difference I was told is that in addition to the top pos and neg terminals there are also a set a terminals mounted on the side of the battery that can be used to run some aux.

I did notice that the Red top I got seems to have a slightly smaller foot print than the old battery I removed (I believe it was the stock battery it came with but as the 2nd owner I can’t be certain.) However, it did lock into everything fine – under the front lip and locked down with the bracket and bolt.

2006 KJ · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:11 pm

i also have a red top.. used top terminals.. and it fit perfectly

scoobysnax · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:32 pm

tommudd - they should have a 2 year warranty so I hope you returned it. Do you know if the battery was sitting on the shelf for a long time at the place you bought it from? I bought mine from a car stereo place b/c they sell a LOT of these batteries and a lot of the yellow tops as well. The guy in front of me got 2 yellow tops so he could run 6 (yes 6) sets of 1,000 wt amps. Anywho, I figured with inventory turn over like that I wouldn't end up with a battery that's been sitting on their shelves for a year slowly loosing it’s charge.

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Thu Mar 19, 2009 11:59 am

I also had to bend mine. Ive had the red-top for 4 years now with no issues. Ive killed it over 4 times now and recharged it, still going strong.

KJ Taz · **Posted:** Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:53 pm

I have red tops in both of my jeeps. The TJ has had one for over 3 years now and sat for almost one of those years and is still going strong.

sleeve84028 · **Posted:** Thu Mar 19, 2009 4:04 pm

Bent Terminals on mine as well. Not to 60 degree's though.

I just angled the cable terminals in towards the center of the battery and had to bend the terminals ever so slightly.

Been like that since my battery died... [don't remeber if that was this past winter or last winter.]

Optima Red Top battery - fit

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