So there is debate on yellow top (deep-cycle) and red top (starting power), but I was reading about the optima blue top which says they are a mix between deep-cycle and starting power. So how come they don't seem to be used? Because people like arguing about red vs yellow but never blue (really should be orange top). And since the blue top is in the same battery series as the Optima yellow and red top why are they not in the rule book?
I think the "Blue Top" is not in the rules because the rule was made before Optima came out with the Blue Top.
And if you bother to weigh a yellow or red top you will see that they are usually just a little to heavy to be legal...
(but they were legal when rule was written...I think)
so they were "grandfathered in"
It just happens that the Optimas are the only "exempt" batteries still in production.... ( try to find any of the other "exempt" batteries listed in rules )
Ron
-- Edited by Ron on Tuesday 31st of March 2015 11:03:11 PM
-- Edited by Ron on Tuesday 31st of March 2015 11:03:27 PM
Another factor was that the blue tops are a true deep cycle and so it is hard top get all of the amps out of them in an hour. The yellow tops you even have to play with them a little during the race to get the most out of them. Most deep cycles are designed to give you a steady amount of power over a few hours like for wheel chairs, trolling motors, etc. We need to get our ~44 watts of power in one hour or it does us no good.
When we made the rules there were blue tops but none of them made the weight requirement. We had to raise it so that we could use the Yellow tops as there is more lead in batteries the more deep cycle they are. The yellows are cross between a 'starter' and 'deep cycle' so not as much lead as the blue tops.
I and others pushed the rule top allow the yellow tops because they would take the abuse that we give out in our races. We overcharge them (at least some) and then take often them down to about >10 volts each. With us having 17 races a year in the NW back then (only 13-15 now) we would have to buy all new red tops every year for our race batteries. They only lasted about 20-25 races before they started to hold less charge. The Yellow tops are supposed to be able to be cycled about 120 times more but we still only get about 3 to 4 years out of them before they start to drop off in storage ability if treated fairly well. By that I mean put on a charge as soon as the race is over and not sit dead for any time, have a low maintenance charge when not used planned to be used for a few weeks, keeps at a good temperature, etc. Since we have a huge fleet of cars (18 this year with 14 of those new this year and new again next year) we go through a lot of batteries and the Yellow tops are a great addition to the rules.
With my price on buying the Yellow tops getting close to $200 each (even when buying them in bulk of 20+ at a time) I am in need of finding a cheaper solution that works and last but so far have found nothing that will work as well.
Thanks Dave,
That looks like a straight deep cycle, do you think you can get out most of the stored power in the hour???
Thanks for passing on any information that you have, Like I said I need to do something cheaper to keep my program running.
