Optima Red vs. Yellow

[BLACK AND BLUE 67-72]

I've got a red top in my 4x4, and the last punch out circle is dated 1993 is is just now beginning to get weak, so I'm convinced!!!!

[Olden Days]

I dont understand the charger issue. If you cant use a regular charger then how come your regular alternater will charge them? (Not doubting just want to know why)
I did not realize the yellow was deep cycle either. But a guy I know who runs a tree service uses a yellow top in his electric dump trailer for a number of years now and swears by them so when the lift gate on my service truck started killing batteries I switched to yellow top and havent had another issue, so I dont understand not using them for heavy drains like suggested because they have been working great for me and my friend.
On anothe note the first one I bought at costco and it could not even start my truck the first time. I took it back and got another one with a different date code that was fine and is what I am still using

[Americanrider]

Olden Days,
Lifting a dump bed/gate does not take as long as a winching job so used for that configuration your I think your ok. It comes down to the AMP draw of the Hydro Pump your running while under load. Most 12V Hydro pumps like that are not rated for continious use anyway and I'm sure you don't run the gate up and down 40 times a hour. It takes my dump bed about 15 sec to reach full up and I'm guessing about the same for a lift gate. Do you have a series-wound pump motor?

A quote from the tech article:

"The deep-cycle has thick plates, and is intended for deep discharge over a long period of time, not deep discharge at high current. If you're running your
headlights 'till it's dead, the deep-cycle will survive more
charge/discharges, but DC's can't handle high-current without damage... and
sometimes they'll explode. Use the high-CCA battery- its internal resistance is lower. Deep cycles don't do high discharge rates... they'll push a 10A load for days, but don't like pushing a 100A load for more than a minute...

For the most part, winches draw insignificant amounts of power until
you load 'em up... Can't remember when, but there's been pull-offs in some
of the 4x mags, and they show no-load speed and current. As you noted,
winches with higher pull ratings will draw less current at a given load
because of that reduction... but if you get a high-pull winch with FAST
retrieval rate, you'll have some pretty high current draw. You'll also
find that shunt-wound motors draw more current than series-wound under
stall condition, while blah blah blah, but what it all boils down to... is
that a fast, high-load pull requires more power, while a slow, high-load
pull draws less... it's that Power=Work*Time thing & Work = Force *
Distance."