Gummi Bear said:
Does your friend wear a tin foil hat so that that big brother can't read his thoughts too?;D :-X
A metal strap is fine.
Most conventional side terminal batteries have a thin strap attaching the terminal to the cell, with time they tend to wiggle loose and cause poor connection. I'm not sure how the internals of the Optima or the Deka batteries are, but this is the case with Exide, Interstate and Everstart I know for sure.
Yep, same. On the Optima at least. Optima, just like many others, doesn't recommend hooking a winch to a side terminal for that reason. They're for short-term starting only and not long, drawn out high-amp pulls. Don't know about the coming loose bit, but a melt-down is not on my recommended list of things to experience either.
For that reason they may not even be the best thing to use if you're always finding yourself using the starter to pull yourself over obstacles. Then again, those probably don't last long enough normally to do any harm. But a long winch pull might.
Now, for his friends mental capacity and car-lore rating, I'd say he's got some points. Side terminal batteries tend to have fewer corrosion issues, in the vehicles that I've experienced at least. Probably due to them being farther away from the source of leaking acid and vapors?
And a regulator that's causing the battery to overcharge can certainly cause a acid/corrosion issue with most normal batteries. Ask me how I know...
AND, at least in theory (remember, he said electrical engineer), a metal strap (bare only though?) in the area between the terminals could cause some sort of corrosive reaction of it's own perhaps? And for sure it basically just deteriorates all to hell when exposed to the battery acid.
Luckly most metal clamps are coated with something, but they're still metal and if anyone remembers the original Bronco one (metal covered with vinyl) when they first got their rig, they'll remember a nice clean vinyl clamp-shaped device with no actual steel left inside it. Just a powder of corroded metal memory! That's why one of my first projects back when was to go down to Ford and spec out a newer model plastic/resin/poly hold-down from a later Ford product.
Still working after all these years.
But my next one is going to be a modern bottom-clamp design with one bolt and no straps. Too clean to pass up.
Paul
