What is the Best Battery for the Ford F-150?

The Ford F-150 pickup truck has routinely found itself at or near the top of the best-selling vehicle lists in the United States for decades and it's no surprise. The newest F150s offer a wide array of options, trim packages and engines. However, nearly all of these newer F-150 (at least those built since 2015) only use one size of battery- the H6, which OPTIMA offers in our YELLOWTOP.

So which battery is the best? We're obviously biased, but we can tell you OPTIMA YELLOWTOP batteries only use 99.99% pure virgin lead and proprietary cast-on straps, which allows them to accept and deliver current far faster than a traditional "black box" battery, that uses recycled lead and weaker, less-efficient tombstone welds to connect the cells. These unique features also allow OPTIMA batteries to be up to 15 times more resistant to damage from harsh vibration, than a typical flooded lead-acid battery and they can last up to three times as long as those batteries! Does that make the OPTIMA H6 the best battery for an F-150 truck? We think it does and we back it up with a three-year, free replacement warranty, which we'll extend by an additional year, if you buy an OPTIMA battery and an OPTIMA Digital 1200 charger from us at the same time.

However, when we mentioned "nearly all" newer F-150s use the H6 battery, there is one exception and that is F150s that come equipped with Ford's PowerStroke 3.0 V6 diesel engines. Those engines call for an H8 battery, which can be significantly larger and heavier than an H6 battery and is typically rated in the range of 850-900 cold cranking amps (CCA). It's not uncommon for diesel engines to need larger, more powerful batteries to start their high-compression engines, especially if those vehicles live in colder climates.

However, the OPTIMA H6 battery is rated at 800 CCAs, which is not far off from the 850-900 CCAs you'll typically find in an H8 battery. Why is that? Again, pure lead and cast-on straps allows OPTIMA batteries to deliver far more current (cranking amps) than a typical car battery. In fact, we've load-tested A LOT of new OPTIMA H6 batteries and we've never come across one that didn't test well above 1000 CCAs, but don't take our word for it. Call your local auto parts store and ask them if they have an OPTIMA H6 in stock. If they do, head down and ask them to load test it before you buy it and let us know what it tests at on Twitter.

So can you use a smaller H6 battery in an H8 tray? You can if you use an H8-H6 adaptor, like the one sold by our friends at Weistec Engineering, who developed the bracket for high-performance cars that wanted enough cranking amps to start their engine, but wanted it in a smaller, lighter battery than the massive H8.