I have always been a believer in the Optimas, but since have moved to Odyssey except for in my Jeep. Ever since interstate sold them they have not been good. I bought a blue top for my camper, and it didn't even last 6 months. It was a joke, then I bought a red top and a yellow top for my Chevy. I got a year out of the red top, but all of my yellow tops are going strong.Great write up and I really appreciate the parts list!
How have the Optimas held up in the AZ heat? I used to run them in my F250 but Costco got tired of me returning them and stopped carrying Optimas.
When you winch have you tried using snatch blocks to reduce the load on the winch?
I'm in Gilbert, hope you'll check out my Jeep group at EVrockers.com
I am kind of stuck on the Jeep. There really is only two kits or brackets you can buy unless you custom fab something. If you don't have A/C then you have more room, but I have to have A/C. I am older and not as tough as I used to be, so I went with the yellow tops. If you go odyssey then you give up cca's by a lot. Which means a lot smaller battery for winching. So I still stand by my yellow tops. It has been a couple years now and they are still going strong and they are both mounted sideways.
In my Chevy I have a pc1500 Odyssey for my main battery and a yellow top for my aux and my aux battery is coming up on 4 years. So if I were to endorse the optima, I would stay with the yellow tops, but honestly when I do lose my aux in my Chevy, I will probably buy an Odyssey for the secondary battery.
For now I will just stay with the yellow tops in my Jeep. I have had pretty good luck with them.
Thanks for the flowers on the write up. I appreciate that!