Group 42 Battery Needed for a '73 Beetle. Help please.

[Jim Ed]

I can not find a Group 42 battery for my '73 Beetle.
CB Performance sells one but, I am trying to buy one locally.
What other sizes will fit under the rear seat?
Thanks In Advance!

[Marc]

Look for an Interstate Battery dealer, they still make 42s.
Sears carries them too...or at least they used to.

[Bruce2]

A Group 75 is the same footprint, just a little taller. Much easier to find. The stock clamp works perfectly.

[bugman742002]

autozone sells a group 42 battery. but if you have the bat hold down and have the room the group 75 battery will work but it is a side post battery.

[Marc]

I run an Optima AGM battery, it's a group 75/25 (it has both side and top terminals). Easier than a "pure" 75 since the stock cables work, but the added height could be a problem if someone sits in the rear seat. A Group 25 would be the same size and have the same liability.

http://www.rtpnet.org/teaa/bcigroup.html

[Steve Arndt]

Watch your seat springs w/ the taller battery.

[Marc]

I don't have a back seat, just a carpeted shelf, so I don't have to worry about it - but if the seat springs short out against the battery posts bad things happen (I exploded a battery that way when I was a kid - sounded like a shotgun went off and there was acid everywhere). The Group 42 battery is designed with recessed posts for better clearance.

[Bruce2]

I've got 3 different group 75s, all are bilingual. Top and side posts.

My Mexican Beetle came from the factory with a plastic battery cover. Even then, the rear seat doesn't have the traditional zig-zag type springs to short out an unprotected battery.

[Marc]

Yours are like mine, morphodite 75/25. A "pure" Group 75 has only sideposts.

http://www.batteryweb.com/bci.cfm

[bugman742002]

at auto zone we call it a 75dt series. but for use in some of the older bugs i would recomend a 47-48 series battery as the posts are recesed even more than the 42's are.