Best bang for the buck Golf Cart battery

[mrad]

The dealer we are buying our toy hauler from will be putting two golf cart batteries in it tomorrow. I will have to bring the batteries as their battery guy will not be there in time to deliver golf cart batteries. I am looking at two of these from Costco. Does htis seem to be the most cost GC battery?
I was hoping to put 4 in, but do to space, we are only able to fit 2.


https://www.costco.com/interstate-6-volt-golf-cart-battery.product.100476406.html

[2oldman]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
It is difficult to determine battery quality by difference in life span with two different people.

My Trojans usually started pooping out after 4 years.. of pretty hard dry camp usage. I didn't buy them to not use them. 🙂

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Try to match my 23 year old batteries. Yes they are slowly diminishing in capacity due to antimony poisoning. Cell death due to plate disintegration is faster.

It is difficult to determine battery quality by difference in life span with two different people.

It is easier to achieve cell recovery with a higher quality battery. Far easier equalization for instance. Depth of discharge. I suspect Gdetrailer is far more attentive to his batteries than what is the norm.

[mena661]

My old 740Ah bank died in pairs. One pair 6 months before the other.

[time2roll]

Dusty R wrote:
If you are out in the middle of now where and one battery goes bad, and you have 2 6 volt batteries in series, now what do you do?

Oh come on. You go get a new pair of batteries.

If you are on some type of overland expedition through East Russia or Africa where this is critical you already have 4 to 8+ batteries.

Truth be told the GC2 seems to be somewhat more reliable than most 12v.

[pianotuna]

Hi 2oldman,


I do prefer 12 volt batteries, for quite a few reasons. But series failure on twin six volt jars is NOT one of those reasons.

[2oldman]

Dusty R wrote:
If you are out in the middle of now where and one battery goes bad, and you have 2 6 volt batteries in series, now what do you do?

This argument comes up from time to time, and although it sounds logical, there's little evidence to back it up.

There are already plenty of series connections in your electrical system. Solar panels are little cells, all connected in series. 12v batteries are just 6 -2v cells in series encased in one jar. You don't worry about those. It is true that if one 6v actually does happen to 'fail' catastrophically, you would not have 12v. But there's no more likelihood of that happening than there is for a solar panel to fail or a 12v battery to fail. And if one 12v battery fails, what does that mean? If it's a dead short, the other battery won't be around long.

If a catastrophic failure is part of your emergency planning, then carrying a spare 12v battery is your safest bet. I carry two.

Batteries rarely fail catastrophically, they fail because the user wants to keep them in service too long and wring every last ah out of them.

[pianotuna]

Gdetrailer,

There are long life alternatives that are quite amazing. The ones I'm planning on purchasing next summer have a cycle life of 18 years. At that point they have 80% of OEM capacity left. That would make me 90.....so I guess they are a life time guaranty for me.

[Dusty_R]

I've come to like Deca batteries.
And I prefer putting 2-12 volt batteries in parallel. If you are out in the middle of now where and one battery goes bad, and you have 2 6 volt batteries in series, now what do you do?
But with 2-12 volt batteries just disconnect the bad one and you can keep going.

Dusty

[Gdetrailer]

allen8106 wrote:
Go with Crown batteries. Best in the U.S. and U.S. made.

:R

How about some real "evidence" that Crown is "best"?

Does it last 20 yrs?

Does it last 10 yrs?

And what conditions?

The only thing I see with Crown is they USED to have longer warranty that might be a plus, however, Crown is no longer proud of their warranty and has pulled that info from their website.. Opting for forcing one to give them an email address for marketing purposes so you can get spammed to death by them..

Crown also has a protected dealer network which keeps their prices high..

All the while they cost considerably MORE.

So, in reality you are paying for that warranty and that warranty may not be what it used to be.

Pretty much ANY battery will last a long time provided you care for it, I have no issues with getting 10yrs out of Sam's club batteries with a 3 yr warranty, capacity is only 5Ahr less than Crown but yet the price is easily HALF of the Crown.. Upside of Sams and Costco, no protected dealer network means a much more fair price and pretty easy to locate a Sams or Costco..

Batteries are a "consumable" item, that means as you make use of it, it slowly destroys it's self, they don't last forever.. Never pay any more for a consumable item than you have to. Sometimes big brand names don't deliver as much value as one would think.

You are going to have to really work hard to convince me that paying twice the price for 5Ahr more capacity is a bargain.. And yes, I HAVE priced Crowns yrs ago at a local golf cart shop.. For the price that shop offered I could buy 4 Sam's club GC2s and had enough money leftover to treat the DW to a good steak dinner.

[allen8106]

Go with Crown batteries. Best in the U.S. and U.S. made.

[phemens]

pianotuna wrote:
Phemens,

An SiO2 100 amp-hour would have been $600 Cnd and would offer essentially the same performance as Li. On float, lifespan is 18 years.

The killer for me is weight. For what I use (6x 100AH) that would put a severe load on my frame. It's the main reason I switched from wet cells in the first place. Each technology has its place!

[MEXICOWANDERER]

As I pointed out many golf car batteries have gone dog snot in the last 15 years
EAST PENN and Trojan are OK

[Gjac]

I think for the average user that just camps 3 months out of the year with minimal battery requirements you can go wrong with Sam's Club batteries. Mine are 13 years old and I paid $74 dollars apiece. I just camp don't watch TV or play on the internet(no service where I dry camp). I thought I would have to replace them this year but after equalizing them I think I will probably get a few more years out of them. Some on here full time so they have more electrical demands, so maybe spending $600 for Li or SiO2 is warranted but not for my usage. I think my Sam's club were Duracell's some have reported that Costco switched to Interstate and the reviews were not good. Battery plus also sells Duracell's so that is another option.

[jdc1]

Costco is my go-to.