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

Skip

On 6 Jul 2006 16:08:44 -0700, "Skip Gundlach"
wrote:

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.

Absolutely right.

Skip, where are you in your "get away" plan ?

Hi, Wayne, and group,

Rather than hijack this thread, see my separate post "Skip and Lydia's
Excellent Adventure Update" posted some time soon :{))

L8R

Skip and Lydia, shortly to be of no fixed address, no itinerary, no
schedule

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/p7rb4 - NOTE:new URL! The vessel as Tehamana, as we
bought her

"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely
nothing-half so much worth doing as simply messing,
messing-about-in-boats; messing about in boats-or *with* boats.
In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter,
that's the charm of it.
Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never
get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to
do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."