Interstate Golf Cart batteries, which line is best deal?

[JoeChiOhki]

So, I've resumed work on Ms. Merry, and was looking back at one of my battery compartments and thinking "Hmmm..... I think that may be big enough to fit two golf cart batteries in".

So, I did a little digging, first looking back at the Costco Golf Cart batteries, because Interstate makes them, but alot of the reviews were coming back negative with the batteries having failed within the first year or just outside the 12 month warranty period.

So, since there's an actual Interstate Battery store literally across from that costco in the parking lot, I thought I'd take a look at interstate's main golf cart lines, because I've had decent service from their Group 27 Starting and Deep Cycle batteries.

There are, actually four different model lines of Insterstate Golf Cart battery:

Extreme Golf Cart Series
High Cycle Golf Cart Series
PowerFast Golf Cart Series
M Line Golf Cart (These are the ones I suspect are the ones Costco sells with their Kirkland branding on them).

Of the four, which tier is the best middle ground for durability vs cost?

[theoldwizard1]

gbopp wrote:
I didn't think Interstate makes their own batteries, they just rebranded other manufacturer batteries as Interstate?

Correct !

I think there a lot more "happy" Costco/Interstate customers than unhappy ! Bang for the buck, those are hard to beat.

One quick (and somewhat accurate) way of comparing batteries is by comparing how much the weight. More weight = more lead = "mo' better" !

The Interstate Extreme 2400s is about 1" taller, but it weighs 13 lbs more than the Costco interstate GC2 and has 250Ah vs 210Ah.

The question is, is that 40 extra Ah worth the cost !


Probably the "best" GC2 battery available is the Trojan T105 (225Ah). $$$ ! They also sell the T125 (240Ah) and the T145 (260Ah).

They also sell the T105 in AGM (217Ah).

[deltabravo]

time2roll wrote:
If the GC2 is poorly maintained there is a good chance it will fail at 13 to 18 months. Generally you will easily get 8+ years if maintained properly.

Proper maintenance (regular water checks) is the key.
In my camper it was pretty much impossible to check the water in the batteries until the camper was off the truck and all cables disconnected and batteries removed from the sliding batter tray.

Because my camper stayed on the truck all summer, water checks only happened once a year.
Because I have an inverter/charger, the batteries gassed more when charging, losing water.
I killed the batteries due to poor maintenance.

This was my solution to the problem.

[pianotuna]

JoeChiOhki,

I'm aiming at 600 amp-hours @ 12 volts myself. I'll be using SiO2 batteries.

[time2roll]

If a GC2 is truly defective it will fail within the first few months. If the GC2 is poorly maintained there is a good chance it will fail at 13 to 18 months. Generally you will easily get 8+ years if maintained properly.

Although the Costco units are at the lower capacity range for GC2 at about 208. Some go to 232 but you will pay more too. Double check the height as they are about an inch taller than group 24/27.

[Kayteg1]

I did try to study batteries builders, but even with my mechanical incline >>>> it is a swamp there.
About 15 years I had bus conversion, who needed 4 batteries house bank.
I bought 4 golf cart batteries at Sam's for $46/piece and those batteries served me for 12 years, even most of winter season they spend in storage yard with 8 or more months without charging. I just pulled clamps from them to eliminate all the draw cable leaks can make.
Those batteries would give me power for making 1l of coffee every morning, running lights and water pump for at least 3 days before I had to recharge them.
Having 24V system, I also made some successful tries to use them for welding.

[JoeChiOhki]

pianotuna wrote:
Ask why are the batteries failing. If you solve those issues I'm certain they would last a heck of a long time.

Is there room to increase capacity so that the batteries are not cycled too deeply?

Aye, I have two separate battery compartments with a set of bank charge and use selectors, so I can change between which bank or battery is in use. The forward compartment has a lot of room left with a single scs225 in there and the current batteries are ten years old, so I figured I would see if I could make it a larger bank to get me up to around 400 ah total

[gbopp]

Fulltimers wrote:

gbopp wrote:
I didn't think Interstate makes their own batteries, they just rebranded other manufacturer batteries as Interstate?

I bought 6 for my golf cart. Only $118 each so I suspect they are the cheapies. The guy loaded 6 plain black batteries in the back of my car then slapped Interstate stickers on them.

Isn't that how they build cars nowadays :@

[Fulltimers]

gbopp wrote:
I didn't think Interstate makes their own batteries, they just rebranded other manufacturer batteries as Interstate?

I bought 6 for my golf cart. Only $118 each so I suspect they are the cheapies. The guy loaded 6 plain black batteries in the back of my car then slapped Interstate stickers on them.

[pianotuna]

Ask why are the batteries failing. If you solve those issues I'm certain they would last a heck of a long time.

Is there room to increase capacity so that the batteries are not cycled too deeply?

[gbopp]

I didn't think Interstate makes their own batteries, they just rebranded other manufacturer batteries as Interstate?