Need suggestions on house battery replacement

[mchero]

Getting ready to upgrade my house batteries and thought I'd lay out my gameplan.

For 12 years I owned a 1993 Pace Arrow DP on an Oshkosh chassis. Shortly after purchased I replaced the 4 six volt house batteries. Approx 2005 I purchased 4 of the Sams Club golf cart batteries AND replaced the converter with a Progressive Dynamics 60 amp smart charger with the charge wizard. Got a good 9 years out of those batteries! To this date, new owner still using e same house batteries.

Two years ago we purchased the 07 Discovery. I found 4 Interstate 6 volts. http://www.atbatt.com/interstate-gc2-xhd-6v-deep-cycle-golf-cart-rv-battery.asp

Shortly after getting the beast home I discovered that the house batteries where not getting ANY charge. I felt the terminals and found one hotter than a Chernobyl reactor core. I replaced the interconnect, cleaned all cables and was good to go but also found a bad Aux start solenoid so I replaced it as well.

I have since installed 4 Gigawatt 250w high voltage panels. I have 2 strings paralleled flat on the roof out of any shade. Currently just outside of Lake Havasu on BLM land waiting to meet some other fellow RV'ers in a couple of days. Will move to the island Thursday for the Balloon festival then off to Quartzsite to the RV & Jem show.
Getting around 500 to 600 watts mid day. Been very happy with the Charge controller but just about done with the interstates! I have been careful to FULLY charge these batteries using the specs provided by interstate themselves. I have charged, check SOC with the hydrometer. I find everything within specs. No dead cells, no dry cells, appears to evenly require water.
Now that I'm ready to purchase have some questions. 1st option would be the Sams Club option BUT now that I have a nice solar setup I can install larger batteries. I can't go over 4, My battery bay is last bay on drivers side. They see ALLOT of dust dirt and water. I am always keeping them clean so wet cell is AOK with me. Now, Trojan have caught my eye, T105 would be a good replacement BUT I do have the height so POSSIBLY the larger/taller 300 to 400 amp hour batts.
Man, atbatt.com has some fanominal prices IF you can pickup at the warehouse. I have all the HW, crimper & such to makeup new, 2 gauge cables. Will keep them all the same lengths as possible & plan on having this rig for the next 10 years.
Any thoughts on the larger Trojans? Never knew anybody with those types of batts. I'll add more to this thread, want to explore B4 the sun goes down.

Thanks

[Almot]

mchero wrote:
OK, I'm out in BLM country and I'm strictly solar so I'm cranking up the absorb rate as per this Interstate site.
The Xantrex will only bring the batteries up to 14.8 (60 deg). Not ANYWHERE near the Interstate's 15.3 volts!

Batteries in Absorb now & hovering around 15.3 to 15.5. will see what happens later this afternoon.

Interstate in your link suggests Absorb 14.7V - not 15.3V. You're boiling them at Equalization now, wasting fuel and polluting the air for nothing 🙂

The fact that solar controller can't bring the batts to 15.3 Eq could mean several different things: not enough sun, bad battery, temp comp doesn't work - to name a few.

[mchero]

Yes, he presents more of a rant but a good rant!
Good point on the Sams Club batteries, good deal!

OK, I'm out in BLM country and I'm strictly solar so I'm cranking up the absorb rate as per this Interstate site.
The Xantrex will only bring the batteries up to 14.8 (60 deg). Not ANYWHERE near the Interstate's 15.3 volts!

Batteries in Absorb now & hovering around 15.3 to 15.5. will see what happens later this afternoon.

[onecb]

I was in Sam's Club here about two months ago and I always look at the 6 volts they are selling. I noticed now they have a larger size 6 volts for a good price also. They had one pallet of each size, in the store I was in. Youmay want to check these out before you purchase. Alvin

[Almot]

mchero wrote:

https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/the-rv-battery-charging-puzzle-2/

Of interest;" Recently (spring 2007) Interstate had some problems and I still keep running into folks with bad Interstate batteries. I think they had a bad production run.

Interstate is not the top of the line, yes.

I wouldn't trust blindly in Handy Bob's blog either. I used to read him, it's entertaining, but the way he presents material is more of a rant than informative or educational. Can anybody explain me what he meant to say about Trimetric monitor not being correct because "of the way it's connected"? Or why Xantrex Link-10 (or its newer versions) are so much better. If you use a shunt, the ammeter will count the beans as correct as it can, there is no wizardry here. IMO, none of these AH-counters are perfect, but this is another story.

[scrubjaysnest]

If I were to get 6 volt, I'd go with the Trojans. T105's are 63 to 64 #'s. A little more money but with your set up and care, 8 to 10 years is not impossible.

[mchero]

smkettner wrote:
Compare T-145 and L-16 if you want more capacity.
Member Mena runs L16 and seems to be happy. Make certain the structure will support the weight.

Good info smkettner, Thanks!

Any good deals at the Quatzsite RV & Jem show? I'll be hanging around for a while after the show.

[mchero]

Easy Almot, Did NOT put ANY falt on the Interstate batteries.

It could be age, they could have run flat SEVERAL times B4 I took ownership

Been doing a lot of reading/research on wet cell batteries.
Good reading
https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/the-rv-battery-charging-puzzle-2/

Of interest;" Recently (spring 2007) Interstate had some problems and I still keep running into folks with bad Interstate batteries. I think they had a bad production run. One dealer I talked to about the problem tried to tell me that a hydrometer is not an accurate way to tell if an Interstate battery is fully charged and the new Interstates run at a lower voltage. Huh? "

2007 Discovery 39V with Interstate batteries? Hmmmm.

[Almot]

I wouldn't want to lift anything over 61-63 lb.
Just for curiosity - why are you "done with Interstate"? It wasn't their fault that they were not getting any charge 🙂

[time2roll]

Compare T-145 and L-16 if you want more capacity.
Member Mena runs L16 and seems to be happy. Make certain the structure will support the weight.

[2oldman]

The weight is what stops me from buying those bigger batteries. 1kw solar.. excellent.