Upgrade: Optima Red Size 35 Battery

Welp, my old battery (Generic, black idk what brand) has been unreliable for a few days now. So on a whim today I stopped in O'reilly's to see what the options were. I settled on this bad boy due to having some after-market electrical bits (sound system w/ sub, exterior lighting) which were likely putting extra strain on the old battery.

This battery should have no problems powering everything and comes with a pretty solid warranty. Unfortunately, the Optima is quite a bit shorter that the stock battery (but the footprint is about the same and fits on the battery tray no problem) so the factory securing bracket does not fit. I threw a couple bungee cords over it just to get home, but I figured the bracket could be easily shortened to accommodate the new battery. I figured correctly.

Both sides needed to be shortened by about an inch (see photos for actual measurements). The threaded hook needs to be a little under 8in end to end. The fixed hook should be slightly under 5in end to end. The fixed hook should be bent in more of an L shape to ensure it'll fit, whereas a J bend is fine for the threaded hook. Additionally, I added some padding on the bracket where it touches the battery. I don't think this battery's going anywhere.

 

It should have come with an adapter piece to raise it up. I’ve have Optimas in all my Toyota’s and didn’t have to modify the j hooks. At least you got it secured though. Good job.

 

That would make sense. I probably could have thrown an improvised spacer of some sort under it, but this makes it look way more factory.