x2, when the alternator died on the wife's RS, I ran the trooper back until the gage on the dash was somewhere less than 10 volts. I had to use an old charger, no problems. I have a red top in both Zus, and a yellow top in the previous F150/expedition/explorer for about 5 years. I had killed that battery several times with no problems.Originally Posted by VXorado
Red Tops don't recover like conventional batteries when completey discharged, hopefully this info from the optima website will work for ya.
Good luck
http://www.optimabatteries.com/product_support/faqs.php
If an OPTIMA is deeply discharged (below 10.5 volts) most basic chargers will not supply a charge. Also keep in mind an OPTIMA will not recharge properly if treated as a regular flooded or gel battery. To charge the battery, you can wire a second fully charged automotive battery (12+V) to the discharged AGM in parallel (+ to + and – to –). Then hook up the charger to either battery, setting the charger at 10 amps. Leave for two hours, monitoring frequently. During this process if the discharged battery gets very hot or if it is venting (hissing sound from vents) then stop this process immediately. When the discharged battery reaches 10.5 volts or more, remove the standard battery and continue charging the AGM until fully charged.
For normal charging a relatively low current, such as one or two amps can work well, but when the battery has been deeply discharged, some sulfation of the battery plates may have occurred. If you charge at 10 amps, the higher current will help to break up this sulfation.
If you have an automatic charger, let it run until the charger indicates charging is complete. If you have a manual charger, you can get a rough estimate of the charging time in hours of a completely discharged battery (11.2V) by multiplying the capacity (amp hours or Ah) of the battery by 1.2. If your battery is not completely discharged the time would be less.
In most cases these steps will recover the AGM battery. It’s okay for the AGM battery to get slightly warm during the charging process. If it’s hot to the touch it means there’s a short and the process should be discontinued.
I would guess you need to do the parallel charge trick, or just exchange it. My VX sat for almost 6 weeks for the tranny swap, and it started right up with no problems. Take it to autozone and they can tell you if the battery is bad...
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