Batteries...Time to upgrade em...

[flaudia402]

Okay, so the general consensus it seems is stick with golf cart batteries. Take two 6Volt ones, link them together for the stereo and you're set. It seems too good to be true.

(2) Trojan T-145 Golf Cart batteries for $200/each with 260 Amp Hr Rating each.

$400 bucks is still at a price point of a bigger more expensive lead acid battery from some of the other competitors like Lifeline.

So whats the catch? What extra maintenance will I need to be doing with these?

[flaudia402]

RE: Batteries...Time to upgrade em...

I was just looking into it - seems the Trojan T-105's seem to be the way to go. 225 Amp hour's a piece. Two of these wired in series to net me 12volts at 225 amp/hours.

Each of these are just around $120 bucks. I can literally for $400 wire two pairs of these in series, and than wire those two pairs in parallel to net me 450 amp/hours.

It would take a lot of 12V AGM or Lead Acid Batteries to do that for me.....

But, there's got to be a catch, and thats what I want to know. I can swing by Costco and pick up four 6V Golf Cart batteries for around $80 bucks/piece - they should last me 5 years or so depending on maintenance...but maintenance is the issue. Whats required?

[AuMDLST]

RE: Batteries...Time to upgrade em...

They are not sealed (so they can vent) so they will leak and splash out in the boat/battery tray/box - they need to be maintained as far as always checking acid/water level.

[inboardsonly]

have you looked at Energy 1 batteries?

These are not lead acid, theyre a lead paste, and can be mounted on any of their sides, except the top!

two of them are equal to a pair of 8 D batteries.... and fit in the space of ONE 8D! NSB210's!--pretty cool.

http://www.energy1batteries.com

The main thing, with any battery, is to make sure that they get charged properly, especially at the end of the day, or you'll have issues.

Spend the money on a good charger for when you're done at the end of the day.

[EarmarkMarine]

RE: have you looked at Energy 1 batteries?

flaudia,

While we don't use golf cart batteries, there are many towboat owners that do and swear by them. We pretty much stay with AGMs but I'm not discouraging you from using golf cart batteries. You can't argue with the amp/hour value.

With any deep cycle flooded battery you'll want an AC shore charger that has a charging capacity that is at minimum 10 percent of the total amp/hours. We try to exceed that by one third additional capacity. This helps with proper desulphation and promotes longer lifespan.

With a starting battery that is usually put up relatively charged you wouldn't necessarily need to include that in your charger size selection but you would want a distribute-on-demand type since you'll have dual 6-volt batteries in series which constitues alot of capacity on a single bank. This would also solve the issue of only using two banks on a 3-bank charger. So I would probably look at a 30 amp multi-stage 3-bank charger or 2-bank if I could find one at this capacity.

Maintenance is a matter of a monthly routine of checking and restoring fluids after the battery is fully charged. That's normal with any flooded batery.

Spills might be a factor in your tray or case selection. Some ventilation is required.

David
Earmark Marine

[Mikeski]

RE: have you looked at Energy 1 batteries?

I ran golf carts for 2 summers. Only needed to add water once over this time period (but I didn't boil them during recharge). Our boats come from the factory with flooded batteries so I don't understand the resistance to adding more of the same as we see from the factory? How often do we service our factory batteries? How much harder is it to add water to 3 batteries instead of 1 or 2? The key here is placement, if you can fit plastic battery trays like the factory uses for your golf cart batteries in a place where they are easily accessed, then I would just use the golf carts (from Costco or elsewhere). These days I have expensive Optima 2400's (2) dedicated to the stereo, no significant noticeable improvement over my old Exide golf cart batteries.