I use odyssey and optima batteries all the time for marine applications. I have seen alot of optima batts. come back to be replaced, and have yet to see an odyssey come back. I have a blue top optima but havent installed it cause I am going with the odyssey. I have never used either on the trail (yet),but for marine use they seem to be the way to go.
That's funny, I work in a similar environment and see just the opposite. We are just now having problems with the last of our optimas after several years of abuse, while we've had a lot more probs with odysseys. I would highly recommend stayin away from the red top napa gel cells, we regularly pull new ones off the shelf only to find out they're bad. 2 years ago a customer wanted to replace his 3 year old yellow top optimas with new 88s and gave me his old optimas to get rid of.....I got rid of em to my house, charged em up and they all charged well and load tested well, and I use one or two in my truck(rotate them), and after hooking up a battery isolator will run 2 or 3 on the truck, Nate
