Optima batteries are EXCELLENT!

I would agree, but from a somewhat different slant.

Optima batteries come in (at least) two versions: the "Red Top" batteries and the "Yellow Top" batteries.

The Yellow Top batteries are known for having a lot of reserve power, you can take a lot of juice out of them before they fall over with low voltage.

The Red Top batteries are designed for very high current flow in both directions without as much reserve capacity.

The Red Top battery is what I have in my old Toyota Land Cruiser snow plow truck. The electric snow plow lift/angle drive uses an immense amount of power -- probably in the vicinity of 300-400 amps. This means I couldn't plow very long before the battery ran out of juice -- until I got the Red Top. I have a 200 amp alternator in the truck (the original alternator was, I believe, 40 amps) and that Red Top will accept a ridiculous recharge rate. I can have the battery run down so far that angling the plow blade makes the engine run rough -- and by the time I have driven to the next plowing job, it is recharged and ready to take on the next driveway or parking lot. It used to be I could plow for maybe four hours before heading home and putting the battery charger on overnight. Now I can plow until I run out of gas -- and it is about even odds which will run out of gas first: myself, or the Land Cruiser.

The Land Cruiser, by the way, is 33 years old now. I bought it brand new for $3500 in 1969, and it has been plowing snow every winter since then. One blown head gasket, one clutch, and some wheel brake cylinders that got ripped off when a tire chain slipped off onto the inside of the wheel are about all I have ever had to do to it. It'll probably only go another couple of years before the rust kills it though... the engine block is rusted through to the point where it is porous, and I have to put in half a gallon of antifreeze every time I run it, I can see the highway beneath my feet, the rear body panels are about gone... but it just keeps on chugging along.

Oh -- and the stereo system is a boom box duct-taped to the dashboard.

Really.

tanstaafl.