Our coach batteries have bit the dust after only 4 years. I think they should have lasted much longer. What service life have you guys experienced from your coach batteries?

Our batteries (2 each) are John Deere Strong Box, p/n TY21748, BCI Group 8D, 1200 CA @ 32 deg F, 440 amp min reserve. They have an install date of Feb 06. I understand from doing research that they are pretty good batteries but wanted to get some feedback from the experts on this forum before I buy like replacements. Any advice would be appreciated.

Roman

quote:

Originally posted by roman:
Our coach batteries have bit the dust after only 4 years. I think they should have lasted much longer. What service life have you guys experienced from your coach batteries?

I just traded in my pair of Trojan golf cart batts. They were almost ten years old. They still tested over 550 CCA on my Midtronics conductance tester, but were a little under 200 amp hours when tested by my slow discharge method.

I really wanted to keep them longer to see how long I could use them, but we decided to switch to a set of four GC Trojans, so we had to start fresh with a matched set.

quote:

Our batteries (2 each) are John Deere Strong Box, p/n TY21748, BCI Group 8D, 1200 CA @ 32 deg F, 440 amp min reserve. They have an install date of Feb 06. I understand from doing research that they are pretty good batteries but wanted to get some feedback from the experts on this forum before I buy like replacements. Any advice would be appreciated.

Roman

I can't comment on John Deere batteries, as they are surely made by someone else. What I will say is that some 8Ds are not true deep cycle batteries. That is, the same battery is labeled and sold as either crank or deep cycle, or just not specified. That works OK, as they are big and strong, but it is not ideal.

Usually a true deep cycle battery will be rated in amp hours over a 20 hour discharge. A CCA rating is often an indicator of a cranking battery or a dual-purpose compromise.

I have used 8Ds, and had to stop due to back problems. I even need help to wrestle my golf cart batteries. You might consider this if you plan on getting older.

My liking for golf cart batteries is that they offer the most amp hours for the money, and, if you have the height (or can adapt) their footprint allows the most amp-hours per square inch.

That said, if I had the back strength and the room, I would use a couple of L-16s. At work, we got really long life from them in our lifts, etc.

BTW, the new Trojan flip caps can flip acid in your eyes or on your clothes, so either use goggles and acid-resistant battery checking clothes or rustle up some of the old twist lock caps. They fit. The old press fit 3 in 1 cover fits, too, if you cut off the hinge pivots on the top of the battery.

Bill,

Thanks for the battery advice and the safety tip on the flip up caps.

I will look into getting true deep cycle batteries to replace the John Deere 8D's. Sources for heavy duty deep cycle batteries are limited in Alaska. But since we have golf courses with golf carts we most certainly should have a source for their batteries.

Thanks Again

Roman

You might search this site for some posts by MWrench on Trojan vs Costco/Sams/Johnson Controls/Interstate, etc. He uses his batteries pretty hard, and has some good input.

The battery nannies at golf courses usually have opinions on batteries that are worth listening to. Some are more astute than others, so ask around.