WHEN I ASKED LIFELINE ABOUT THEIR GOLF CAR BATTERIES

[MEXICOWANDERER]

In relationship to say their 8-D battery, this is the answer I got...

Justin Godber

12:48 PM (0 minutes ago)

to me

When you talk about 1 battery vs. 2 six volts there is no advantage or disadvantage either way. The only advantage is the 6 volts are much easier to move around by yourself.

When you get into a 6 or 8 battery bank of six volts you can physically get more amp hour into the same space as the 8D’s using 6 volts. Example for the GPL-4CT, you can fit 3 in the place of 1 x 8D. If you had 2 x 8D’s you could fit 6 x GPL-4CT’s. GPL-4CT x 6 is 660 amp hour whereas 2 of the 8D’s would be 510 amp hour within the same footprint.

I knew this twenty years ago. But the superstition about "Golf Car" being a better battery somehow, just will not disappear.

The FOOTPRINT may be the deciding factor for many people. But as far as plates and general construction goes, choosing a 3-cell battery doubles the number of series cables needed

Nuff Said

[Harvey51]

In any comparison of 6v vs 12v batteries, I think it should be mentioned for the understanding that comparing amp hours is tricky. The amp hour is not a unit of energy. Electrical energy is measured in watt hours or volt-amp-hours. So a 100 amp hours in a 6 volt battery is 6x100x1 = 600 watt hours. Compare to 100 amp hours in a 12 volt battery: 12x100x1 = 1200 watt hours. It means you need two 6 volt batteries in series to equal one 12 volt battery with the same amp hour rating to have the same energy storage.

[pnichols]

H20ENG wrote:
One of the best upgrades I did to my old toy hauler was replacing the 2 "marine deep cycle" batteries with GCs. That and LEDs made for several days without running the gen for a recharge.
The new rig came with true deep cycle 12v batteries. Someday GCs will take their place.

Why do you consider, say, X amp hours of 6V GC batteries to be preferable to X amp hours of true deep cycle 12V batteries?

[H20ENG]

One of the best upgrades I did to my old toy hauler was replacing the 2 "marine deep cycle" batteries with GCs. That and LEDs made for several days without running the gen for a recharge.
The new rig came with true deep cycle 12v batteries. Someday GCs will take their place.

[CA_Traveler]

stevenal wrote:
I have two 12 volt batteries so that if one fails I can disconnect it and still be operational. With 2 6s you're out of luck.

Yes but the advantage is minor IMHO. A short will likely wipe out both batteries. My batteries have always lost capacity which serves as a red flag for replacement.

Batteries are available everywhere in the US so I don't see a significant issue with a failing battery of whatever voltage. Inconvenient of course. Plus the advantages of deep cycle batteries for me far outweigh other types for the house battery.

Case in point: My son's 3 year old 6V GC battery have lost capacity due to lack of maintenance. We just installed additional solar and he's talking new Trojans and better maintenance next fall when he will again be dry camping. In the meantime they are adequate.

If upgrading from 12s to 6s be sure you have room including height. 6s are higher for a reason - There is more space under the plates allowing for more sloughed lead before reaching the plates resulting in longer life.

[Atlee]

When is the last time you have had one of two batteries unexpectedly fail?

I haven't heard of any of my friends who have dual batteries tell about a single battery failure.

Should one of my GC-2 6 volt batteries fail unexpectedly, then I'll know better, and may do something different next time.

Of course, my problem is the cost of two 12 true deep cycle batteries is a bit much. My two 6 volt batteries are relatively cheap.

stevenal wrote:
I have two 12 volt batteries so that if one fails I can disconnect it and still be operational. With 2 6s you're out of luck.

[wa8yxm]

I have a dual meter carbon pile load tester.

If battery bank is ackting "Funkey" (IE not holding charge) I start by isolating a battery or all of them. and then hook 'er up and test. Battery by battery.

The Dual meter tester (500 amp) is not hefty enough to do a PROPER test on a pair of GC_2's (That takes 600-700 amnps draw) but ... Well if they test BAD. they are.

[prairie_camper]

stevenal wrote:
I have two 12 volt batteries so that if one fails I can disconnect it and still be operational. With 2 6s you're out of luck.

I’m curious to know how you monitor your batteries? Do you watch them constantly, how do you know if one is failing? Do you separate them if away from the RV for awhile? Because if one starts failiing internally and shorts out it’s taking the other one with it! You would have to be there at the exact moment it was happening to save the other one.:)

[wa8yxm]

I too am interested in the Full Discharge explanation
The myth with Ni_Cads was that you had to do that or they would develop memory (NO. they don't. at least not in human use They do in orbital satellites but that's about the only place).

WHen you look up Gauge. this is for guns not wire but the concept is the same

You case a bunch of balls the same diamater as the barrell of the gun
Then you dropped them one at a time on a scale counting

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 and the scale tripped over the mark. That's a 10 Ga Gun.

THis applies to all shotgund dave the .410.. that is a caliber (Size in inches o.410)

Same with wire. basically if you measure off say 12 feet of 12 ga and 10 feet of 10 ga.> Same weight.

there is specific weight and you cut that much wire and measure it's length to find the gauge.

That said I think wires are shrinking.

[stevenal]

I have two 12 volt batteries so that if one fails I can disconnect it and still be operational. With 2 6s you're out of luck.

[H20ENG]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Other Lifeline
I used a 50-watt incandescent lamp, discharged it totally then jammed 14.4 volts into it. 164 ampere hours if I remember correctly. It's rested voltage is .06 less than the T

Can you explain why you discharged it fully before recharging? I thought this was bad for all except NiCads 🙂
Were you just seeing how much it had stored without being charged for so long?

[theoldwizard1]

MrWizard wrote:
given the same foot print

i will pick the battery with the most lead, the one that weighs the most

Best rule of thumb !

[Gdetrailer]

wgriswold wrote:
12 is greater than 10. The gauge is inversely proportional to the wire size. This has become an exercise in semantics and not worth the time.

Not "semantics", period.

12 in "integers" IS "Greater than" 10, but that (INTEGERS) DOES NOT APPLY TO WIRE SIZES, PERIOD.

In WIRE SIZES, 12 AWG IS LESS THAN 10 AWG.

So, to be CORRECT IN THE WORLD OF ELECTRICAL WIRING one MUST NOT think in the terms of "INTEGERS".

In the electrical world, 12 ga wire IS SMALLER than 10 GA wire.

So, in the ELECTRICAL WORLD when one says to go a " WIRE size up" in wiring they mean that one would want to go from say 12 Ga TO 10 GA or 12 GA to 8 GA.

They do not mean to go from 10 GA to 12 Ga as you seem to think, doing so as you say is DOWN GRADING TO A SMALLER WIRE SIZE.

Confusing? Yes, but that IS the world of Wire sizing..

If you cannot understand this then you clearly should not be handing out ANY electrical advice.. Someone WILL end up following your bad advice and end up burning down their RV..

[GordonThree]

wgriswold wrote:
12 is greater than 10. The gauge is inversely proportional to the wire size. This has become an exercise in semantics and not worth the time.

this one made me actually laugh out loud

[wgriswold]

12 is greater than 10. The gauge is inversely proportional to the wire size. This has become an exercise in semantics and not worth the time.