Well, I don't know -- I've taken any number of car batteries (and big
deep-cycle) apart to melt the lead to make bullets out of and they always seem
pretty firmly attached. And I was just about to cut off the posts on fairly
large deep-cycle to fit it under the deck of my '82 diesel westy. But, that's
only a $60 battery, not a $150.
  But lead is awfully soft and easy to cut, I'd really not think you'd impart
too much twist in sawing them off. I'm planning on using a sawsall.

On Fri, Aug 09, 2002 at 04:11:01PM -0700, Aaron Reams wrote:
> Thanks for the response.  That's definitely the kind of sanity check I need
> before ruining my new optima.  Sorry to hear about your battery.  So, I
> think I'll cut the metal flange off the seat mount and go with a side-ways
> install instead of cutting the terminal posts.
>
> Cutting the terminal posts just sounds a little to risky.
>
> Thanks everyone.  This list is great.
>
> Cheers,
> Aaron
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andrew Fox [mailto:afox@CNR.COLOSTATE.EDU]
> Sent: Friday, August 09, 2002 3:00 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Optima Battery Question (cutting terminal posts?)
>
> I have experience cutting battery posts.  I cut the posts off a little on
> another battery that did'nt really fit in the vanagon compartmennt (DPO)
> and about a week later I noticed that battery acid was coming up thru the
> battery posts!  Upon closer inspection i noticed that the post was
> actually constructed of 2 pieces of lead, an inner piece and an outer
> covering.  By cutting the post the acid seeped between the 2 pieces and
> ruined the battery.  This was not an overpriced optima but based on what
> they told you about it drying out the battery it is probably constructed
> the same way.
>
> Andrew Fox
>
>  > Hi Volks, >
> > I'm setting up my aux battery today.  Does anyone know if I can cut the
> top
> > terminal posts off?  It's an Optima Yellow Top with both top and side
> > terminals.  I would like to cut the top terminal posts down from 1" to
> about
> > 1/4".
> >
> > Note:  I would think this would be okay, but I placed a call to Optima and
> > they said that this would dry the battery out (and void my warranty).  I'm
> > not sure I believe them about the drying out.  I would think those
> terminal
> > posts are solid lead all the way into the battery.  Does anyone have any
> > experience with this?
> >
> > Thanks!!
> > Aaron
> > -'85 Westy (almost ready for burning man:)
> >

--
Harmon Seaver
CyberShamanix
http://www.cybershamanix.com