Antigravity ATX-20-HD

[Tomster]

Recently, in an effort to reduce my vehicle weight as much as possible, I purchased an Antigravity ATX-20-HD. Along with it, I picked up the SAE terminal adapters as well as a battery tender for lithium batteries.

Well, the good..... A HUGE weight savings. The ATX-20-HD weighs in at about 5 pounds. The OEM battery weighs in at almost 30 pounds. The antigravity battery does not come equipped to accept the standard battery terminals wired into your car, however, they make a set of SAE terminal adapters that make it a snap. Overall, lots of starting power and a huge weight reduction. In addition, Antigravity has developed a battery mount that secures the battery so that you dont have a lithium battery bouncing around your battery compartment. Although the battery mount is very well thought out and engineered, an OEM interface was not included to mount it to the OEM battery tray or compartment. Keep in mind that the battery mount pictured is a prototype that was provided to me for evaluation, so maybe Antigravity will engineer a bracket or mount to secure the fixture in an engineered fashion. What I did was engineer my own. First, I modeled a prototype interface from wood to test my design. Next, I obtained a more suitable material and finalized my design and locating it inside the battery tub (or tray) for heat protection.

The battery, once installed, was able to start the car immediately. There was no fuss, no problems, or issues.

The intent of obtaining the battery was primarily weight reduction. The perceived obstacle was safely mounting the battery with minimal or no modification to the vehicle. I was provided a prototype (finalized for production) mount that solved many of my concerns. However, I had to design and build an interface to mount (the mount) to the OEM battery tray (tub).

I have a track weekend coming up. I am excited to continue to evaluate the Antigravity battery as well as the new mount offered by Antigravity.

So far, I am very impressed. Stay tuned and I will give you performance observations as well as updates on how well the battery and mount performed. Here are a few installation photos in the mean time.

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[honeybadger]

Been using this battery all summer and it's never let me down - about 12 track days now. Highly recommend it

 

[petstang]

Great write up ! I am very interested to get this set up on my car. It would be helpful for me to know exactly what parts to order to have exactly the same set up.

Thanks Tomster ! Keep us posted.

 

[MNGT350]

thanks for the review. think this is in my future as well

Did you need to adjust anything in ForScan? I'm hoping it's just simple plug and play.

 

[Tomster]

Great write up ! I am very interested to get this set up on my car. It would be helpful for me to know exactly what parts to order to have exactly the same set up.

Thanks Tomster ! Keep us posted.

I'll post a screenshot of a cart from the Antigravity website. The battery mount is not on the site because they are still waiting for them from the manufacturer. I am using a prototype mount (as pictured above).

There is a discount coupon to further reduce the prices as shown in the below cart. Please call Antigravity to obtain the latest code.

 

[Tomster]

thanks for the review. think this is in my future as well

Did you need to adjust anything in ForScan? I'm hoping it's just simple plug and play.

Plug and play (with the exception of the mount interface I had to make). My OEM battery in the car was maintained by a battery maintainer. I charged the new lithium battery until it was full and had no issues. Keep in mind, they don't ship these batteries fully charged. It took quite a while on a lithium charger for it to be full.

 

[THX 138]

What is the weight of the battery plus the prototype mount, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Tomster]

What is the weight of the battery plus the prototype mount, if you don't mind me asking?

The battery weight is about 5 pounds and the mount is about 1 pound (maybe less). If you need to know exact weights, contact @Antigravity Batteries for exact weights.

 

[galaxy]

Hey Tom, so these things are going to be perfectly capable and suitable for daily use? What's the downside to these batteries? They don't like to sit for long periods or any other 'gotchas' like that? Any reason (other than cost) to not go this route when a replacement battery is needed??

I know there's another thread on the topic, but it got pretty deep.

 

[Tomster]

Hey Tom, so these things are going to be perfectly capable and suitable for daily use? What's the downside to these batteries? They don't like to sit for long periods or any other 'gotchas' like that? Any reason (other than cost) to not go this route when a replacement battery is needed??

I know there's another thread on the topic, but it got pretty deep.

I just installed the battery less than a week ago. My plan is to use this battery as a weight savings part. After my track weekend is over, I do not plan to use the battery for daily use. However, there are lots of people who do use this battery on a daily basis and report no issues. On the other thread, I believe he has been using it in very cold conditions and not using a battery tender. Zero issues.

My angle here is a weight savings part. Reducing weight is a very difficult thing to do and this is the quickest and easiest way to go about it. The ATX-30-HD has more power than the -20, but it comes in just a little bit heavier. If the -20 works well, I see no reason for me to run the heavier battery.

I will report my findings after my track weekend this December.

 

[galaxy]

So with such great reports, why do you not plan on just leaving it in there full time?

 

[Demonic]

Hey Tom, so these things are going to be perfectly capable and suitable for daily use? What's the downside to these batteries? They don't like to sit for long periods or any other 'gotchas' like that? Any reason (other than cost) to not go this route when a replacement battery is needed??

I know there's another thread on the topic, but it got pretty deep.

Perfectly capable and suitable for daily use. If you're going to use one for daily use but also will have the car sit for weeks at a time without being on a tender, then you may want the added size of the ATX30HD, which weighs about 7.5lb versus the ATX20HD coming in at 5lb. That being said, I did use the previous version of the ATX20HD, the ATX20, as my only battery in the car for the 3 months it was loaned to me to test. Even after 2 weeks of sitting without a tender, the car would start without any issues. As to any downsides, you really just need to be smart about not letting the battery completely discharge, at which point there's a potential of bricking it. But as long as you're smart about it that's not a big issue. As Tom pointed out, the biggest remaining downside is likely a hard-mounting solution. The batteries are light enough that you can use dense foam to tuck them in the stock tray, but that's not exactly an ideal solution, and some tracks require a rigid battery mount.

 

[Tomster]

So with such great reports, why do you not plan on just leaving it in there full time?

Because I'm trading the car in towards a CFTP GT500. Back to stock it goes. Besides, the purpose of the battery is weight savings for the track. I don't need the weight savings on the street. Now my electric golf cart.... that is another story. When a 48V lithium array is available at a reasonable price, yes, they will be full time batteries.

Many people use these batteries full time and have no problem with it. This review is really more about the mount and less about the battery. The batteries have demonstrated utility and dependability for a while now.

What are your concerns?

 

[Sagittaria]

I've been running the ATX20HD as well since July up until about two weeks ago in MN before winter storage.

I also would leave the car sitting for almost 2 weeks - plenty of charge left over e.g. more than 85%. Also left the car in accessory mode for almost 30 minutes - just under 80% charge left.

This is simply dropping in with the stock battery profile and no battery reset (resets on it's own after 8 hours) — no other changes.

Only niggle I've seen is that I noticed the car charges the battery a little higher voltage in 20-30 degree weather - most likely to offset lead acid cold weather battery characteristics. Still nothing out of spec however for the Antigravity batteries and certainly not enough to trip the built in over voltage protections.

Great purchase IMO to save 22lbs (on a GT350)!

 

[BoomBoy]

Why CTEK? The website recommends Optimate for batteries without the RE-START technology. https://antigravitybatteries.com/help-center/choosing-charger/

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