What's the biggest battery that will fit?
 

New battery time. I've looked at the high performance ones like Odyssey, but I can get 5 Costco batteries for the same price and each one has a 100 month warranty.

The stock group 58 battery lasted a long time but is pretty weak, and now I live in a place that actually gets cold. What's the biggest group size that will fit into my 02 edge battery tray and use the stock hold down hardware?

Thanks

im interested in this too, id like to get the biggest battery possible for the stock location. every bit helps when its -10F

ive bee running a Duralast gold for the last two years with no problems, 34-dlg with 800 cca and 105 min. reserve. Auto Zone has a great warranty on them too especially the gold. the ony one they had at the time was the top and side post so I had to pick that one up, but I did have to modify the tray a bit to get it to sit down flat, and buy a hold down kit, but it was very worth it.

Any battery that fits with at least 800 CCA - Cold Cranking Amps, will do the job.

Size matters but the cranking amps is important.

Optima battery are good or any battery along that lines.

I've already settled on the Costco battery, they have a good rep and are by far the best value. I just want to know how big I can go. Guess a 34 will not fit.

Yellow tops i heard were good. I have a sears platinum battery. Not sure of the cca but if u can afford it its a beast.

ok here is my question.

what do you want to do? do you just want one for faster starts or do u have a bunch of accessories u want to run alone with better starts?

THE SIZE!?!?!?!

No major accessories. I just want better starts, longer life, slower draw down, etc.

I am getting a Costco battery, and just want to know what group size will fit.

I put a group 65 in mine . Its a Duralast Gold . 850 cold cranking Amps (1000 cranking Amps)

Thanks! So it fit right in with no mods?

Once you get the battery you want, you can always put in an auxillary battery in the bed or somewhere else as a back up. Not sure of how you would wire it but you could do it where you would charge both batteries at once like the old RV's do.

sorry about that heres some info.
its DieHard P-1 Platinum
4 year warranty
880 cold cranking amps
135 minutes of reserve capacity
i believe its group 34

you cant get one for the ranger but it fits right in. with no mods but with my car you cant use the bracket but it doesnt go anywhere and ive been through bumpy terrain.

What ever happened with this thread? I'm looking to do the same thing. I'd love to toss a group 65 battery in, but it looks like it will require mods or won't fit in the bracket. I have an 03 Edge.

I found this spec sheet from Interstate, that actually lists sizes for different batteries they sell, but nothing looks like it will work.
http://dealers.interstatebatteries.c...otive_spec.pdf

It really helps to know the year you're working with. There's definitely a larger battery tray in Gen2 than Gen3 for example. From memory, the limit is a group 65 in Gen2 vs 58 in 3.

What I had to do was take a hammer and flatten the edge of the lip around the battery tray for the bigger battery to sit down flat, and I bought a battery hold down kit from AutoZone, your 03 should be the same or similar.

I think it's considered a Gen 3. It's a 2003 Ford Ranger Edge.

That sounds easy enough. I'll probably end up doing the same. Though I just noticed group 34 just might fit. As long as it's not to tall.

For what it's worth, I noticed yesterday that a Gen2 Explorer has a group 65 tray despite having the same basic engine compartment as a Gen3 Ranger. I may take a closer look at what's involved in making that work.

Just so every one is on the same page

Car batteries are only used to start the engine, after that only alternator power is used
i.e.
engine off vehicle voltage is 12.3-12.8volts
engine running voltage is 13.5 to 14.9volts
So nothing comes from the battery when engine is running, if it does that means alternator is failing.

If you want to spend long hours with stereo and lights on and engine off, then you get a second smaller battery, a deep cycle battery, made to be drained down and then reCharged(thicker plates).
Car batteries can't take a slow discharge, ruins them, thin plates are used to get high AMPs quickly to starter motor.

CCA Cold Cranking AMPs is what most people look at for car batteries
CCA testing is done differently depending on test method
All use 0degF(-18C) for the test, and let battery cool down to 0degF for 24hour before testing
500CCA is more than enough for any Ranger engine, even V8s with compression ratios below 10.0:1, even at -20degF

So anything equal to or over that is fine to use

If you want 800CCA then you must have swapped in a diesel engine, lol
If your engine won't start with 500CCA then all 800CCA will do is to let you crank it longer before deciding "hey, it won't start??, WTF", lol.

In colder weather all batteries have slower chemical reactions that release the AMPs needed by starter motor.
People often hook up block heaters and battery warmer as well in very cold climates.

So before you go swapping out parts, do a bit of checking on what end result you are after.

BIGGEST BATTERY IS GROUP 94 AGM SET ON ITS SIDE
 

BIGGEST BATTERY IS GROUP 39 AGM SET ON ITS SID94