Changing to AGM

[Nootch]

I was able to fit a H6 in my hybrid with not many mods. It ended up going in sideways quite nicely. I took down the 'wings' that held the battery, trimmed the securement tab, fuse holder mounted to get 200A fuse back in right place, and shortened up the ground cable. Not a whole lot of work all in all, and going to 140RC in capacity.

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[RideSolo]

I just switched to a new H5 AGM today. Not too difficult and didn't take very long; 45 minutes or less... an I'm not fast. (The local Walmart is just on the other side of town, I've had very good luck w/ batteries from them over the years, and have never had any issure if there has been a problem, even 1,000 miles away from home! And the 4 year warranty over everyone else's 3 year is nice, too.)

As others have said, it's not difficult to get the various pieces of plastic off. The bottom tray isn't hard to get loose but takes a bit of effort to actually get out. Once you find the right combination of movements, attitude, and wearing exactly the right color clothing and appropriate shoes it will come out intact.

I had intended to use a Dremel and a cut-off wheel to just cut off the two end tabs in the floor but once I got in there I could see that it would be easier to just bend them as others have done. A piece of scrap 2X4 and a 5# hammer made quick work of the job. You can see them bent down on the pix below.

I found that using a bungee cord to pull the Positive cable up out of the way helped getting the new, longer battery into place.

There is a bolt that sticks out near the Negative terminal and, though the battery is secured and won't move around, I didn't feel comfortable w/ it there so close to the battery so I put a bolt thread protector over it.

That's it. I did the reset procedure and now it's sitting out in the driveway w/ the doors locked until tomorrow morning.

I know I could have gone w/ an H4 and there may or not be a great improvement or difference in going w/ the H5, but a few months ago I did the same change in our Escape hybrid and have been very happy w/ the results. The smaller H4 was about $20 more as well so i was willing to put in the marginal additional time and effort.

 

[Tech Tye]

My OPTIMA YELLOW TOP H5 is still going strong. I did start getting the sleep mode last week and tested the battery. Battery was good , so I did the BMS reset and all good. I did find out the my hi voltage battery will need replacing today as I was getting random codes and would clear. Had to take it to the dealer this morning and that is what I need. They ordered one as they don’t stock them. They have had several go bad in the escapes, none in the mavericks. I’m still driving it tho

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