Replacement batteries for a dual charge system ?? what type

Hi,
Appologies if this is in the wrong area.

Due to an illness my 90 ( 200tdi) has been sat in the garage for about 2 years and unsurprisingly the optima batteries ( yellow & red ) that had been fitted have died, I have tried to recover them my to no avail, i used a lorry battery borrowed from a friend which just about mananged to turn the engine over before heating the jump leads to much!! I even tried connecting the lorry battery directly to the cables entering the engine from the under seat box without any other battery or connections but same issue.
I know that the diesel may be duff after so long but the 90 has been inside a relativey warm dry garage for this period so im not convinvced it is the diesel!!
Obvioulsy the batteries will need replacing but as i wont be doing serious off roading i dont see the need for gel batteries, can anyone suggest a much cheaper alternative?
Cheers
Kev

If you have connected the lorry battery with jump leads to the landy without a fitted battery with some go in it then I would not expect it to go.The only time I have seen this work is when a set of heavy duty cables made from arc welder lines was used. Can you connect the lorry battery directly even if it is not in properly?

Depends on what the two batteries are each connected to. Obviously the one used for starting the engine needs to be a fairly hefty starting battery- I used the biggest one with the highest CCA that would fit. If your second battery is used for relatively low-current power over a longer duration, then something like a caravan leisure battery would be more suitable as these are designed to be more deeply discharged and recharged.

How is your split-charge setup wired?