Deep Cycle Battery Recommendation

Trojan makes the standard-of-the-industry quality golf car batteries. IMHO a wise choice. What bothers me is the lack of information about positive plate thickness of AGM batteries. No one but Concorde seems to want to reveal this specification. A battery can be built easily to have lots of plates and weight and feature high CCA, amp hours, and weight. But toss in the requirement for +.100" thick positive plates and suddenly everything gets quiet. Real, real quiet. Thick plates surrounded by envelope separators? Surely you must be kidding me.

Specialty batteries offer thick plates at exchange for performance per pound and hideous new cost.

As always battery performance and longevity increase to the square in importance the more a person boondocks. I'd love to see the look on some folk's faces when they discover how much EASIER it is to recharge a top quality battery. Inexpensive equals a life-long commitment to try and feed broccoli to a 2-year old.

Mr Wizard I think showed a picture of a Grp 27 next to a telecom battery. BIG difference. That said, with current pricing here on TC batteries I'd buy a set if I had not just bought my Lifelines last year. 600 Ah for $500 new is so tempting.

The Lifelines are great, well so far. One season isn't much of a test. They have their advantages if you can take advantage of them, but like any top tier battery, it comes at a cost. They are pricey! Pricey enough that you want to make sure they are well cared for and properly charged.

On the flip side, a sealed FLA battery will be much less expensive and may offer more Ah per pound.

I have two Trojan t-125's golf cart batteries and they work great. This is my second set as I sold my first TT with the first set and they were 10 years old and still going when I sold it. So it was a no brainer when I moved up to a new to us TT. In the spring since I added solar I will be buying two more to double the amps as we dry camp as much as FHU. The solar project works with 448 watts but with the two new batts Ill be adding two more panels.

When an AGM manufacturer comes up with competition for the Concorde Lifeline"s performance and .105" positive plates then I will harken. When a manufacturer can come up with a flooded battery that can compete with a Rolls for ease of recharging, resistance to sulfating and phenomenal longevity then that too will capture my attention. A three hundred dollar battery that outlives four one hundred dollar cheapo batteries tickles my finances. I've got better things to do than fight my own batteries.

So far "Thanks!" to all the input. Great website!

Silly me. I adhered to the OPs request for a pair of group 27 or group 29 batteries. NO TELECOM BATTERY HAS HIGH CCA in respect to size and weight. Compare 20 amp hour rate to weight. Telecomm loses by a wide margin. Now ya wanna rumble 4 Telecomm batteries versus (4) 2-story Lifeline AGM batteries?

Before this choo-choo roars round the bend, off the rails and down into the canyon the OP declared he is looking for a pair of 27-29-30-31 batteries. Unless he has specific requirements most all flooded batteries are more similar than they are different in this BCI range. Divide the price by the weight and go for it. Costco, Sams, Wal-Mart, Interstate, Sears.

The S and the G keys are not close together. VRB is a sealed battery of varying construction.

OP what are your specific requirements? Heavy boondocking? Limited battery space?

wa8yxm wrote:
The standard GC-2 six volt golf car battery is 220 Amp Hours give or take 10 amp hours.

Wire two of them in series and they magically become a 4D, that's 200 amp hours at 12 volts give or take 10 amp hours.

Exactly what you are looking for.. PLUS.. These are TRUE DEEP CYCLE batteries designed to deliver up to half their load (110 amp hours give or take 5) before recharging V/s MARINE/deep cycle, which is only able to deliver a smaller fraction (like 30-40% of their capacity before recharge without excess life shortening damage.

There are two manufacturers that offer true marine deep cycle batteries that are not a hybrid,(deep cycle/starting) Rolls Surrette and Concord.

Hi wa8yxm,

You must be feeling generous. A marine cycle battery is better off not going below 20% state of charge from all that I've been able to glean.

wa8yxm wrote:
V/s MARINE/deep cycle, which is only able to deliver a smaller fraction (like 30-40% of their capacity before recharge without excess life shortening damage.

The standard GC-2 six volt golf car battery is 220 Amp Hours give or take 10 amp hours.

Wire two of them in series and they magically become a 4D, that's 200 amp hours at 12 volts give or take 10 amp hours.

Exactly what you are looking for.. PLUS.. These are TRUE DEEP CYCLE batteries designed to deliver up to half their load (110 amp hours give or take 5) before recharging V/s MARINE/deep cycle, which is only able to deliver a smaller fraction (like 30-40% of their capacity before recharge without excess life shortening damage.

Hi BFL13,

Mine have a specific gravity of 1.30 when fully charged and new and are a surplus acid design. That means treat them like wet cells--fully recharge as often as possible. For what I paid for them I can replace them often but I don't expect that to happen. I'll let you know in 5 years.