Help wiring third battery

[zyklonb 10+ year member]

I currently have a Chevy cobalt with the stock battery in the back not under the hood and a batcap2000 back there too. i have an extra optima redtop laying around and i"m wondering if it would be alright to add it in there as another battery or if mixing batteries like that is not recommended. --If is is alright to run it parallel is there a specific order the batcap and the optima would be in? Thank you

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[91caprice 10+ year member]

imo, replace the stock with the optima. mixing and matching is not always a good idea. if you had for example two optimas and the batcap,then it would be no biggie. but anytime you run multiple batteries just wire them in parallel

 

[zyklonb 10+ year member]

the problem is there isnt enough space where the battery is under my tire well to fit the optima so i have to run the stock battery which is a small vented battery which almost no companies make

 

[BassAddictJ 5,000+ posts]

i have a cobalt. i ended up setting up my bat in the trunk and ran 4aweg wire from the stock battery terminals to the new bat terminals in the trunk.

for your install i would ditch the stock bat and get the optima and batcap together. as long as they are in parallel ( + to + and - to - ) you'll be fine. As far as getting the batterioes to fit. Try to cram that bat cap in the stock batter location. worst comes to worst get some straps and bungie/secure the batteries to any solid part of that stock battery mounting area. as long as the batteries arent sliding around in the tire well you'll be fine.