Hopefully someone else can find this useful.

When my battery died about two months ago, I wanted to upgrade to something better than wet. I had a bad experience with another car that I had that where the previous owner let a battery leak all over the frame rails and I ended up having to replace them. Which was a pain... I , like most everyone else, couldn't find any sealed batteries that were a direct fit in the 996.

I read that people used the SC34R to fit and figured I'd suck it up and buy the expensive GMG tray. After reading the complaints on here about Optimas, and seeing that they were made in Mexico, I decided to get the same size, but Diehard. From the pictures of the GMG mount, it didn't look like it would make a difference. Sears does not have the Platinum in 34R, but they have the Gold so I figured I could give that a try. I've since read that the Diehard gold probably won't be any better than the "Red Top", but at least it was on sale.

Unfortunately, it takes a while to make a battery tray. After a week of waiting, GMG let me know it would be 3 weeks. After 3+ weeks, GMG let me know that that they didn't have an ETA.

This weekend, I figured I better mount the thing somehow or I won't be driving a 911 this summer. Lesson learned: there's lots of mounts boxes, trays, hold downs, etc for the curved Optima shape, but not the box shape of a normal 34R.

I found a "boat" mount that is a temporary solution:


I used the top plastic hold down, cut down the rods to fit under the hood, and re-threaded them so they would thread directly into the OEM tray. If I had a welder, I would have welded them in place, but I used Loctite yesterday. I wouldn't race or do any driving events with this, and I'll keep an eye on it until the GMG tray comes in, but it's in there pretty solid.

 

nice work. very clean. i agree that optima is a pita to put in.