Need a new battery - 2005 Tundra

[OutOfBounds]

My factory battery is pretty corroded and I'm pretty sure it's the original one so it's around 12 years old. I'm looking for suggestions on what to replace it with. I've been eyeballing the Costco batteries, but I'm not sure if there's better ones.

- This truck lives in northern Alberta, Canada. During the winter, nighttime temperatures have been known to plummet to -40 Celsius and colder so a battery that can handle cold starts is important.

- I will have a light bar hooked up to it eventually, but not much else for auxiliary stuff at this point.

- I will eventually go to a dual battery system, but would be open to buying different batteries at that point if need be.


Oh, and while I'm on the battery topic I'm also going to be looking for a battery charger, primarily for charging a deep cycle trolling motor battery but also for other batteries as the need arises. Suggestions there as well?

 

[vicali]

I just put a CT eliminator into both the Tacoma (12y/o) and our Subaru (9y/o).. got the most cca I could without going to an AGM type.. I've seen a few people have problems with them recharging properly from the Toyota alternators..

Went with CT because there is one on almost every town and I've had more than one batt replaced with no questions asked way beyond what I would've expected.

Costco is good too- but didn't carry the size I was looking for.

CT also carries chargers in the Motomaster brand- usually there are a few on sale month to month- mine was half price around $20 and works great..

 

[OutOfBounds]

Sounds good, I'll check out CT this weekend and see what they have. Thanks!

 

[odonekanobe]

I have X2 batteries in 3 out of our 4 vehicles. Got them through Batteries Plus, not sure if you have them up there. Great service. The battery is an AGM, and X2 is a Northstar brand. The first one I got was put in my wifes Highlander. Thinking it was about 2-3 years ago and every time I fire that rig up I laugh. It sounds like the starter is on meth and is going to jump out of it. I have no doubt this battery will hold up.

I also have one in my '04 DC Tundra and '93 4runner. The Tundra is not my DD and can sit for long periods and you never could tell by the way it cranks when I do drive it. They are not the cheapest battery out there, but I am a big fan.

 

[Cascadian_Matt]

Check out the Deka Intimidator AGM line. About half the price of an Odyssey and fairly comparable stats.

When you move to a dual battery setup, you'll need both to be the same style battery so now is the time to make the jump into AGM or whatever style. Don't want to be re-buying 2 more when you make that move.

 

[OutOfBounds]

Are the AGM batteries superior to standard batteries?

 

[RockenAlex]

I'm a huge fan of odyssey batteries. A good buddy is a battery dealer and he hasn't had a single one come back in the 3 years he's been carrying them. They also have some of the best customer service reps I've ever talked to, I was even put through to one of their engineers when the nice lady couldn't answer my technical question. And the engineer spent 30 mins talking to me, offering advice and input for a complete dual battery setup including pointing me in the direction of other companies that made parts I was looking for when odyssey did not.

 

[SurferJacoby]

Definitely go Odyssey or DieHard; had a PC34 1500 that lasted me for nine years and finally gave up the ghost this past winter. Replaced with an Optima yellow top and less than three months later wouldn't hold a charge. Took it back to the shop for them to put it on the charger and the seals started warping. Not a great introduction to Optima quality. If I hadn't been in a rush I'd have gotten a replacement Odyssey. Moving to a group 31 marine here shortly when I upgrade the alternator and wiring. What happened with the Optima could have happened to anyone but it turned me off from the brand completely. O'Reilly's replaced it and gave me another one but I'll be replacing shortly. Good luck on the purchase.

 

[karlmagnum]

I personally prefer Odyssey just from my experience.

 

[trailscape]

I've had the Diehard/Odyssey battery as my starting battery since 2012. It's also been linked to a Yellowtop since I couldn't decide between the two. That Optima has been used vigorously and still goes.

I got sick of cleaning up lead acid batteries. They've made a mess in the past several vehicles so I'll be sticking with the sealed types. AGM just seems to work for me so far.