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.

Jim

"Jim" wrote in message
ink.net...
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.

Jim

Here's a great link that should answer all of your questions...

http://www.vonwentzel.net/Battery/index.html

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

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.

Jim

Don't know who makes the Cosco batteries but the West Marine Type GC2 6
volt batteries are T-105's made by Trojan. You can usually get them
cheaper at the Trojan dealer.
krj

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 Thu, 06 Jul 2006 19:00:08 GMT, Jim wrote:

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.

Sam's Club usually has them for about $50 each plus a $5 core charge
if you do not have an old battery (any type) to give them. Dollar for
dollar these are the cheapest batteries you can get unless you have a
wholesale source. I've got 8 of Sam's batts on my trawler.

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 ?

Wayne.B wrote:

On Thu, 06 Jul 2006 19:00:08 GMT, Jim wrote:


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.


Sam's Club usually has them for about $50 each plus a $5 core charge
if you do not have an old battery (any type) to give them. Dollar for
dollar these are the cheapest batteries you can get unless you have a
wholesale source. I've got 8 of Sam's batts on my trawler.

What is the amp rating on your batteries?

I've learned there's three levels of batteries. And lots of different
prices.

On Fri, 07 Jul 2006 02:24:30 GMT, Jim wrote:

Sam's Club usually has them for about $50 each plus a $5 core charge
if you do not have an old battery (any type) to give them. Dollar for
dollar these are the cheapest batteries you can get unless you have a
wholesale source. I've got 8 of Sam's batts on my trawler.

What is the amp rating on your batteries?

I've learned there's three levels of batteries. And lots of different
prices.

I believe they are rated at 220 Amp-Hours, 20 amp rate. Mine have
been going strong for over a year which includes about 7 months of
liveaboard cruising while powering a large inverter.

One of the best things about 6 volt golf cart batts other than cost
effectiveness is ease of replacement. They weigh less than 60 lbs
each, much easier than horsing an 8D on and off the boat and into
position.

Rolls, Surette and Trojan all make good batteries but you will pay a
lot more for them. If I were cruising around the world and could not
get replacements along the way, that is what I'd be using.

We have been using golf cart batteries for five years from Walmart. I
believe they are made by Penn and have proven to be very durable. I gotta
believe they are the best bang for the buck on the market.

"Larry" wrote in message
...
Jim wrote in news:Y4drg.4079$ye3.3854
@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net:

Costco has them for $62 each

225 AH, 6V at a 20 hour discharge rate. It's on the sticker on the side.

Being taller, make sure you have the space over them so you can fill them
during maintenance, comfortably. AS the floorspace footprint is much
smaller, if you have the vertical space, you might be able to fit 4 or
even
6 of them into the space the 8Ds came out of. 2 or 3 parallel banks is a
lot of power at amazing amperages when needed, without overheading the
one-
house-battery. One or two marine battery switches to isolate and separate
them, in case you lose one cell, allows you to run the rest until the bad
cell can be replaced....redundant. Just parallel them all on BOTH when
the
charger is on them, distributing its current to slowly charge them all.

$62 is a bargain. Being for rough service in golf carts that may roll
over, mine don't leak a drop if inverted.

Figure out what your maximum current the cabling can stand and put a heavy
battery fuse in between each pair in the jumper. Mine have a 250A fuse
using #2 cables. They crank a 6.2L V-8 diesel easily without that fuse
even getting warm.

If the battery charger didn't boil out the electrolyte overcharging and
had
enough capacity to reach 1.270 specific gravity, why screw around buying
some electronic gadget with more failure modes and unproven reliability.
Old battery chargers charging the same old lead-acid batteries that has
worked for 20 years will do so another 20 years. Is there a downside in
here somewhere??

Larry wrote:

Jim wrote in news:Y4drg.4079$ye3.3854
@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net:


Costco has them for $62 each


225 AH, 6V at a 20 hour discharge rate. It's on the sticker on the side.

Being taller, make sure you have the space over them so you can fill them
during maintenance, comfortably. AS the floorspace footprint is much
smaller, if you have the vertical space, you might be able to fit 4 or even
6 of them into the space the 8Ds came out of. 2 or 3 parallel banks is a
lot of power at amazing amperages when needed, without overheading the one-
house-battery. One or two marine battery switches to isolate and separate
them, in case you lose one cell, allows you to run the rest until the bad
cell can be replaced....redundant. Just parallel them all on BOTH when the
charger is on them, distributing its current to slowly charge them all.

$62 is a bargain. Being for rough service in golf carts that may roll
over, mine don't leak a drop if inverted.

Figure out what your maximum current the cabling can stand and put a heavy
battery fuse in between each pair in the jumper. Mine have a 250A fuse
using #2 cables. They crank a 6.2L V-8 diesel easily without that fuse
even getting warm.

If the battery charger didn't boil out the electrolyte overcharging and had
enough capacity to reach 1.270 specific gravity, why screw around buying
some electronic gadget with more failure modes and unproven reliability.
Old battery chargers charging the same old lead-acid batteries that has
worked for 20 years will do so another 20 years. Is there a downside in
here somewhere??


My 20 year old "Pro Mariner" charger does overcharge and boil the batteries.

A modern 3 stage charger might be a good investment.