4x4Wire's TrailTalk Forums: Concorde Battery

Hi, Raven -

Welcome! Take a minute and fill in your signature line with your truck's details so we know what you drive - it might help folks answer some questions.

Concorde has a distributor with a Rockingham, NC warehouse. They do a lot of business with NASCAR selling them Racer batteries. You can order from them and UPS will deliver. Here's the link to the website - unfortunately it doesn't contain the NC contact:

Advance Power Products

You can order through the CA location and they will ship it from NC, but if you'd rather call NC direct the number is 800-572-3224 (if I've properly deciphered my notes).

If you call either, they won't advise using the SunXtender in a SLI role. Instead, they will suggest that you buy the Lifeline product. When you ask the difference, you'll be given an answer, but one that has no facts to back it up - no matter how many questions you ask. I've even spoken with the product manager for Concorde and still was unable to find out the difference. I did get from the product manager the name of the design engineer, but have not called him yet. I decided to try the SunXtender. Here's why:

The Group 27 Lifeline case has the same footprint as the SunXtender PVX-1040T but the Lifeline has handle extensions at the top of the case that would have to be cut off to fit the space (heat shield gets in the way on a Gen1 Raider). It wouldn't be a big deal to cut off the one toward the engine, but I wanted to see how the SunXtender worked. The price is less on the SunXtender, but so is the warranty - 18 months compared to 5 years for the Lifeline - big difference if you like battery warranties.

A Gen1 3.0L requires 490 CCA rating - a number I would assume the SunXtender easily exceeds, but with far greater AH and RC than any other battery I've seen. If you look at the weight of the SunXtender you'll see it's slightly heavier than the Lifeline Group 27. As you probably know, as you build a heavier battery with thicker plates, the ability to deeply discharge and recover is increased but the ability to rapidly discharge (CCA) will decline. When I look at the Lifeline specs I see that it has plenty of CCA rating that shouldn't be degraded very much by slight changes incorporated in SunXtender and the benefit may be a battery that can be pulled down repeatedly without damage.

I've seen the same articles that you reference and tried to call AZ Wind & Sun, but got an answering machine. I don't think there will be any problem using the SunXtender in our trucks, but if you feel doubtful go for the Lifeline - marketed as an RV/Marine SLI battery. If you order the SunXtender, be sure to ask for the automotive battery posts as an option. They are metric threads and you might have trouble finding them locally. The NC warehouse knew nothing about them (just started selling the SunXtender) and could not include them in the order. The CA warehouse is sending a set to me.

I decided to be a guinea pig on this since I think it might be the best battery for our trucks but don't have any answers yet. The battery's installed but there's a lot of other work in process and I'm not driving the truck now. I'll post a picture of the installed battery after I complete the auxiliary lights and gauge wiring.

Oh - in your posted list of choices, the CCA rating for the Lifeline Group 27 is not that high - it should be around 575.

If you find out any further information, please let us know.

Frank

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'89 G-Raider Supercharged 3.0L, MegaSquirt 2, lockup A/T, 2.5" exhaust, 155k, Cibie H4s/Oscar SCs, Hella Micro DE fogs, Cobra CB, Superwinch hubs, LSD rear/Aussie Locker front, Bilsteins, 165A alt., Concorde AGM, Rust-Oleum, cobwebs

Edited by FrankR (12/22/04 01:59 PM)

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