What AGM Battery

    Quote from hwy64auto

    What battery should I get. Removed battery out it is dead. Looks like a Toyota battery. But what is everyone else is running.

    The newer Slingshots use a different battery... I was able to pick up a similar battery at Batteries + that was a exact replace size and shape, about $125.00 and my small town Batteries + had it in stock.

    If you have Rural King nearby, they offer a Group 34 AGM battery for around $100-130, depending on sale price. Pep Boys carries a Bosch AGM battery that looks identical to the RK battery. Normal price $200, but often on sale for less. If you have a Welter Performance exhaust that runs thru the trans tunnel, I don't believe a Group 34 battery will fit as it will hit/interfere with the exhaust pipe.

    My Slingshot has the smaller motorcycle battery, and it was just replaced so I am not in the market for a battery right at this moment, But knowing I will be in the future this seemed like it might be a good thread to ask about LI batteries.


    I have noticed there are a few places out there now selling Lithium Ion batteries in both automotive sizes as well as motorcycle / power sports sizes - these batteries seem to have much more power than standard batteries and I was wondering if any of our very knowledgeable people here know anything about switching to this type of battery - I am most interested in knowing if the charging system in our slingshots can work with these batteries?


    If it would work, and have more power at a similar size it seems like this might be worth considering when it comes time, but with the fires and such associated with LI I worry if they would work properly in a system designed for standard lead acid technology

    Cage Free - 2016 Pearl Red SL

    DDM Short Shifter, Sway Bar Mounts Coolant tank Master Cylinder Brace & CAI

    Twist Dynamics Sway Bar, JRI GT Coilovers, Assault Hood Vent

    OEM Double Bubble windshields & various other goodies

    Edited once, last by Edward Neal ().

    Quote from Bigdog

    Lithium ions also blow up when you over charge them...


    slingshotinfo.com/wcf/index.php?attachment/83490/

    Thats why I posted the question - i would think if they are being sold for motor vehicle applications they have found a way to do so safely - hopefully someone here with experience will chime in

    Cage Free - 2016 Pearl Red SL

    DDM Short Shifter, Sway Bar Mounts Coolant tank Master Cylinder Brace & CAI

    Twist Dynamics Sway Bar, JRI GT Coilovers, Assault Hood Vent

    OEM Double Bubble windshields & various other goodies

    Quote from Bigdog

    No they haven’t figured it out...vapor things are blowing up, cell phones and laptops, hover boards, even those little spinner things.


    Now You can not put anything with an ion battery in checked luggage...they don’t want them in the cargo hold...


    Why Some Lithium-Ion Batteries Explode

    pretty sure I havent heard of Tesla S100's or Model 3's having any problems with their LI batteries exploding nor are the very large powerwall batteries that they are installing in homes to use with solar electric systems.


    There are plenty of uses where LI batteries seem to be working just fine and if you think about it the ones that are not seem to be the inexpensive garbage made in China


    If you are going to dismiss all LI batteries because of these issues I think you are making a mistake - If people had your attitude nothing would ever advance. (I was going to say we never would have gone to the moon, but you probably believe that was faked)

    Cage Free - 2016 Pearl Red SL

    DDM Short Shifter, Sway Bar Mounts Coolant tank Master Cylinder Brace & CAI

    Twist Dynamics Sway Bar, JRI GT Coilovers, Assault Hood Vent

    OEM Double Bubble windshields & various other goodies

    There are lithium batteries nearly everywhere now and for some reason we seem to demand 100% safety from them similar to the way we demand 100% safety at a NASCAR track when we accept a gazillion deaths on the road. Here's a quote from an article on electric car safety:


    "Are electric cars more likely to catch fire?


    The simple answer is probably not. Chances are they might even be safer, though it's tough to say that definitively.


    "The propensity and severity of fires and explosions from ... lithium ion battery systems are anticipated to be somewhat comparable to or perhaps slightly less than those for gasoline or diesel vehicular fuels," according to the results of an in-depth investigation into the relative fire risks of the two types of vehicles conducted by Battelle for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last fall.
    About 174,000 vehicle fires were reported in the United States in 2015, the most recent year for which statistics are available from the National Fire Protection Association. Virtually all of those fires involved gasoline powered cars. That works out to about one every three minutes.
    Tesla claims that gasoline powered cars are about 11 times more likely to catch fire than a Tesla. It says the best comparison is fires per 1 billion miles driven. It says the 300,000 Teslas on the road have been driven a total of 7.5 billion miles, and about 40 fires have been reported. That works out to five fires for every billion miles traveled, compared to a rate of 55 fires per billion miles traveled in gasoline cars."


    For our purposes, you can't just put in a lithium ion as they have special needs to perform safely. There are replacements that have a built in battery management systems which are basically a smart electronic regulator that protects from overheats, overcharges and low charge cutoffs. Unfortunately, they are a bit finicky and quite expensive (up to 5 to 10 times more) with the only real benefits being longevity and weight savings.
    I own a 2nd generation Volt which has a very sophisticated ECM just for the batteries including liquid cooling. The up side that is that there are well over 100,000 Volts on the road with ZERO battery pack failures.

    I think it's a pretty safe assumption that all of the Li battery problems such as fires, expansion or explosions have been due to faulty charging circuits in the battery that allowed the battery to overcharge.
    As far as electric cars are concerned, the only concerns I've read about problems with the batteries are related to what might happen in the event of a crash that somehow damages the battery pack and causes a short-circuit. Electric vehicle battery packs contain a very high charge in terms of both the overall voltage and the amperage they can deliver in the event of a short circuit and can result in a fire restarting if the connection to the battery pack is not disrupted. Here's a link to NHTSA's most recent Li electric vehicle battery study - 12848-lithiumionsafetyhybrids_101217-v3-tag.pdf.

    Just went out and bought the Optima Red top Group 25 battery with the dual post (720CCA) for the SS and will install tomorrow. It is one inch shorter in length than the Group 34. I will let everyone know what the clearance is with the Welter Duals exhaust pipe.