On Mar 10, 1:59�pm, Wayne.B wrote:
On 10 Mar 2007 12:23:23 -0800, "Chuck Gould"

wrote:
"Large battery banks that are difficult to access" sounds like a
serious problem, at least on a boat. What do you do when it's time to
replace 'em?

Also, with all of the plumbing, etc, how do you get the lid back onto
the battery box? Cut some additional holes?

(I use a hydro-cap on my Rolls batteries, does a lot to prevent loss
of electrolyte),

Funny you should ask about replacement since I just had to do that.
It was a heavy duty 8D weighing about 130 lbs or so. *It's installed
back under a shelf in the engine room which makes checking and adding
water difficult. *To make matters worse I've installed a bank of 4
golf cart batts outside of the 8D in their own custom box with a lot
of jumper wires for the series/parallel arrangement. * In order to
remove the 8D I had to uninstall the golf carts, the jumper wires and
the golf cart box. *Then I had to slide the 8D out of its hole under
the shelf and horse it up out of the engine compartment. *Not a fun
job, and I ended up giving myself a mild case of tendonitis in my
right elbow.

My theory (thus far unproven) is that an automatic watering systems
would allow me to take better care of the almost inaccessible 8D and
get better life out of it. *The tubing for the plumbing system looks
like it is quite thin and should exit out of the existing cutout in
the battery box. *We'll see. *First I've got to finish some other
projects and then find out how much these fancy battery caps cost.
The tubing and filling arrangement should be very inexpensive.

The Rolls hydrocaps are nice but I don't know if you can get them for
a standard 8D. *How much height do they add?

One of the major reasons I used the Rolls 8D, (aside from a 10 year
warranty wiht the first 7 not pro-rated) is that they are so super
easy to install and replace. You never lift more than about 30 pounds
at a whack, as you bolt 6 2-volt cells together inside a battery box.
If your 8D's are in a tough spot, it's a lot easier to swap them out
in 30-pound increments than making an awkward reach to try and lift a
couple of hundred pounds of battery. Why put the chiropractor's seven
kids through college? :-)

On 10 Mar 2007 17:08:01 -0800, "Chuck Gould"
wrote:

One of the major reasons I used the Rolls 8D, (aside from a 10 year
warranty wiht the first 7 not pro-rated) is that they are so super
easy to install and replace.

Rolls makes a great battery, no question. On the other hand the cost
of a Rolls 8D is somewhere north of $500 if my memory is correct. I
recently purchased a brand X 8D from NAPA auto parts for $160.
Assuming I get the usual 5 years from it, I'll be money ahead.

Wayne.B wrote in
:

Rolls makes a great battery, no question. On the other hand the cost
of a Rolls 8D is somewhere north of $500 if my memory is correct. I
recently purchased a brand X 8D from NAPA auto parts for $160.
Assuming I get the usual 5 years from it, I'll be money ahead.



Yeah, but you will lose "dock prestige" if they ever discover the cheap
batteries after all that braggin' about only using the most expensive
batteries on earth in such a fine yacht....like the rest of them do....


Larry
--
How much price inflation is caused by illegal
aliens gobbling up goods and services, creating
shortages for the natives? I heard 40%!

"Larry" wrote in message
...
Wayne.B wrote in
:

Rolls makes a great battery, no question. On the other hand the cost
of a Rolls 8D is somewhere north of $500 if my memory is correct. I
recently purchased a brand X 8D from NAPA auto parts for $160.
Assuming I get the usual 5 years from it, I'll be money ahead.



Yeah, but you will lose "dock prestige" if they ever discover the cheap
batteries after all that braggin' about only using the most expensive
batteries on earth in such a fine yacht....like the rest of them do....


Larry
--

Boaters ask each other questions about what systems they use on their
boats -- happens in every marina, every day. If boater "A" says, "I use only
Optima batteries!" because they like them, and boater "B" says, "Good
enough, I prefer Rolls," is the Rolls owner bragging and expecting to gain
this mythical "dock prestige," or are they simply passing on information?

Would you have Rolls owners remain silent about their batteries to avoid
appearing "snobbish," or would you have them lie, claiming instead that they
use Duracells?

You can be a very silly person at times, you know?

"KLC Lewis" wrote in
et:

You can be a very silly person at times, you know?



GUILTY AS CHARGED!

Male humans have been comparing the sizes of their penises since the
language was a series of grunts and screams.

This has not changed, just because we are on a dock.

Larry
--
Mine IS bigger'n urs....fo sho!

On Mar 11, 3:05�pm, Larry wrote:
Wayne.B wrote :

Rolls makes a great battery, no question. *On the other hand the cost
of a Rolls 8D is somewhere north of $500 if my memory is correct. *I
recently purchased a brand X 8D from NAPA auto parts for $160.
Assuming I get the usual 5 years from it, I'll be money ahead.

Yeah, but you will lose "dock prestige" if they ever discover the cheap
batteries after all that braggin' about only using the most expensive
batteries on earth in such a fine yacht....like the rest of them do....



That, and after a long weekend at anchor somebody has to be able to
jump start the fleet of guys who think that cheaper is better. :-)

On Mar 10, 11:41�pm, Wayne.B wrote:
On 10 Mar 2007 17:08:01 -0800, "Chuck Gould"

wrote:
One of the major reasons I used the Rolls 8D, (aside from a 10 year
warranty wiht the first 7 not pro-rated) is that they are so super
easy to install and replace.

Rolls makes a great battery, no question. *On the other hand the cost
of a Rolls 8D is somewhere north of $500 if my memory is correct. *I
recently purchased a brand X 8D from NAPA auto parts for $160.
Assuming I get the usual 5 years from it, I'll be money ahead.

If you get five years from a bargain basement battery you're doing
really well.

Rolls pencils out if you figure the more typical three years from a
generic battery. If you pay somebody to replace the battery for you,
or if you value the
time involved or put any value on avoiding the risk of physical injury
associated with "horsing" 150 pounds in what always turns out to be an
incorrect posture, the Rolls puts you money ahead. The warranty on
Rolls is 10 years, (vs 24-36 months for most Brand X), and life
expectancy is often several years beyond the end of the warranty.

The other spiffy thing about the Rolls is that when most batteries
fail it's a failure in a single cell. With most batteries, you have to
junk all six cells bcause one has gone bad. With a Rolls, you simply
test the cells until you find the bad one, unbolt the bad cell from
the network, buy one new cell instead of six new cells, and forge
ahead.

On 11 Mar 2007 16:31:08 -0700, "Chuck Gould"
wrote:

If you get five years from a bargain basement battery you're doing
really well.

Depends how you use it. In this particular case it is a starting
battery for my generators and also powers the anchor windlass. I'll
be very disappointed if it doesn't go at least 5 years in light duty
service like that, assuming I keep the cells watered properly.

Rolls pencils out if you figure the more typical three years from a
generic battery. If you pay somebody to replace the battery for you,
or if you value the
time involved or put any value on avoiding the risk of physical injury
associated with "horsing" 150 pounds in what always turns out to be an
incorrect posture, the Rolls puts you money ahead. The warranty on
Rolls is 10 years, (vs 24-36 months for most Brand X), and life
expectancy is often several years beyond the end of the warranty.

The other spiffy thing about the Rolls is that when most batteries
fail it's a failure in a single cell. With most batteries, you have to
junk all six cells bcause one has gone bad. With a Rolls, you simply
test the cells until you find the bad one, unbolt the bad cell from
the network, buy one new cell instead of six new cells, and forge
ahead.

All true, Rolls are great batteries, certainly among the best.

Brand-X from NAPA has one more advantage however - the NAPA store is
10 minutes from my house and the closest Rolls dealers are 2 1/2 hours
away in Lauderdale or Miami.

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On 11 Mar 2007 16:31:08 -0700, "Chuck Gould"
wrote:

If you get five years from a bargain basement battery you're doing
really well.

Depends how you use it. In this particular case it is a starting
battery for my generators and also powers the anchor windlass. I'll
be very disappointed if it doesn't go at least 5 years in light duty
service like that, assuming I keep the cells watered properly.

Rolls pencils out if you figure the more typical three years from a
generic battery. If you pay somebody to replace the battery for you,
or if you value the
time involved or put any value on avoiding the risk of physical injury
associated with "horsing" 150 pounds in what always turns out to be an
incorrect posture, the Rolls puts you money ahead. The warranty on
Rolls is 10 years, (vs 24-36 months for most Brand X), and life
expectancy is often several years beyond the end of the warranty.

The other spiffy thing about the Rolls is that when most batteries
fail it's a failure in a single cell. With most batteries, you have to
junk all six cells bcause one has gone bad. With a Rolls, you simply
test the cells until you find the bad one, unbolt the bad cell from
the network, buy one new cell instead of six new cells, and forge
ahead.

All true, Rolls are great batteries, certainly among the best.

Brand-X from NAPA has one more advantage however - the NAPA store is
10 minutes from my house and the closest Rolls dealers are 2 1/2 hours
away in Lauderdale or Miami.


How close is NAPA to that nice remote anchorage where the cheapy battery
fails? ;-)

On Sun, 11 Mar 2007 18:15:14 -0600, "KLC Lewis"
wrote:

How close is NAPA to that nice remote anchorage where the cheapy battery
fails? ;-)

My boat has so much redundancy in critical systems that replacement
parts in a remote anchorage are an unlikely scenario. This particular
8D can be parallelled with a bank of 4 golf cart batts, which in turn
can be parallelled with with either a second set of golf carts or an
engine starting 8D.

We had the raw water pump fail on our primary generator last year mid
way through a cruise of the Abaco out islands. After spending a
futile couple of hours trying to locate a new one, we continued on
using the backup generator. If both generators fail I can now
generate enough 12 volt amperage with the main engine alternators to
power a 2 KW inverter. That's enough to keep the holding plate
fridges and freezer cold, or do some light duty cooking. It would be
an act of hubris to rename the boat the M/V Unstoppable but it comes
as close as I know to make it.