Deep cycle battery advice

[Jetta03]

Hi, I'm going to be picking up 2 new 6v deep cycles to replace a pair of old group 27's for my camper battery bank. Charging will be mainly solar, 230watt panel with morningstar 15mppt controller. From the brands I have available locally I've narrowed the choice down to Crown CR-235 vs Trojan T-105 with the Crown's being about $10 cheaper per battery.

It seems that Trojan has the better reputation and brand recognition, but the Crown's are rated at 10 Ah more and are marginally cheaper. Which would you choose?

Thx in advance

[hypoxia]

Both are great batteries. Call each company & ask them what they think, that will give you an insight to their customer service also. Personally I would go for the Crown.

[Jetta03]

FLY 4 FUN wrote:
Not familiar with the crowns, so my nod goes to the T105's. I picked mine up at Rocky's Battery in Edmonton and they were good enough to make up a very professional battery interconnect as well as throw in a carrying strap. I have bought 4 T105 from them in the past 10 years. If you have a business I believe they offer a commercial discount.

Daryll

Thx, I've dealt with Rocky's before and they were the ones recommending the crowns, BatteryWorld had the Trojans. All the positive comments on the T105's are pretty hard to disregard, their rep is pretty stout.

Thx all

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Both seem to have a good reputation. Call ypur local golf course and ask the Pro Which brand they use. These people monitor battery performance, lifespan and cost much more accurately than other users. If they say they insist on Trojan I would take it seriously.

[time2roll]

Crown

[FLY_4_FUN]

Not familiar with the crowns, so my nod goes to the T105's. I picked mine up at Rocky's Battery in Edmonton and they were good enough to make up a very professional battery interconnect as well as throw in a carrying strap. I have bought 4 T105 from them in the past 10 years. If you have a business I believe they offer a commercial discount.

Daryll

[pianotuna]

I would buy the Crowns.

[westend]

I have basically the same solar system and have two banks, one of them 2 x 6V GC2 Sam's Club Energizer brand. All things given, the Crown batteries may be the better economical choice but I do have an affinity for Trojans as I've seen them in a daily use/abuse situation (golf course) and they are like the old Timex watch, "take a licking but keep on ticking".

The Morningstar MPPT 15 is a great little controller. It is totally programmable and the temp compensation seems to work well.

[azrving]

In an industrial setting the bean counters tried gels, various brands of deep cycles, but we always ended up going back to Trojan and Crown. We ran Trojan T105 and T125 in all the personnel carriers and JLG man lift equipment. In the electric lift trucks we ran 4800 pound crowns with them being run low on water, discharged much too deeply and watered them with city tap water. When running 3 shifts they were supposed to have 3 batteries per truck (one in the truck, one on charge, and one cooling off) but with some battery failures we would end up 2 per truck at times. They were given a life expectancy of 5 yr but we ran many of them 7 yr. Any failures were basically from abuse like having a driver park the truck with the lights on in the corner somewhere and tell us a month later that its dead.
You would probably need to check your charging capability also as I believe Trojans want 14.8 volts. Research that first.

Edit: I would also agree with N-trouble. The cheap batteries at Sams etc are a great value. I have a set that are in the process of being torture tested.

[N-Trouble]

Costco 6v have always treated me well.

IMO charging capabilities and maintenance (water levels) mean more than the actual brand.

[CloudDriver]

Our T-105's are 8 years old and still going strong. The original 12 volt house batteries lasted only 4 years.

[Desert_Captain]

Buy the Trojans, you won't be sorry.

:C