Hi, Jim,

Jim wrote:
On my trawler my present house battery bank consists of two 8Ds, my
starting battery is a 4D.

The 8Ds are ready for replacement. I'd like to go with golf cart
batteries.

Costco has them for $62 each. No real information on the card in the
store. West marine has them for $127. There is not enough information in
either place to compare them to each other.

Several sites on the Internet have Trojan golf cart batteries, and there
are many choices, for prices that look like $200 and up.

I have a lot to learn about batteries. I don't have enough information,
yet, to compare what I'm seeing.

Then there's the issue of a new "Smart" charger. My 20 year old charger
probably needs to be upgraded with the batteries.

Your input would be appreciated.

If you can hoist 8Ds, you can hoist L16 (different flavors ranging from
375-425AH). Essentially the same footprint as golf cart, but lift
cart/floor polisher, etc., batteries, they're twice as tall.

My 4 are in a box I had fabricated; with my solar and wind generation,
providing relatively constant charging (vs the usual taper-off of
alternators, never quite reaching full charge) I expect I'll rarely
discharge very far. With pulse technology, I expect I'll get even more
life than well maintained batteries would have otherwise provided.

My preference - if I had lots of square footage available to me (vs
height), I might have gone to golf carts, as generally they're cheapest
per AH and common as dirt.

L8R

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