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Topic: BATTERY EXPLOSION (Read 1383 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: BATTERY EXPLOSION

Reply #20 –
Good point Kent. When I sold my bus, a bought a couple of Sam's Club 8Ds for about $100 each. The old ones were 6 or 7 years old so not a bad deal.

I did see one of our prevention cars come in the back of the station with all 6 caps blown off and each cell acting like Old Faithful. Must have taken almost five minutes for it to stop. Nothing wrong just before it happened. Was spectacular to watch.

Dave's point is also well taken. If the budget is fat, there are a lot of better choices.

Pierce

Re: BATTERY EXPLOSION

Reply #21 –
My son's neighbor is an Interstate dealer or distributor (don't know which). This week I was offered Interstate 8D wet cell trade-ins for the just the core charge. I probably could have reduced the price to zero by trading my several years old AGM batteries. The trade-ins were six months old. I declined, even before reading the "explosion" thread.

Re: BATTERY EXPLOSION

Reply #22 –
I should have added that my Sam's Club 8Ds were engine batteries and that I had a couple of deep cycle Trojan 6 volts for the house batteries. Any time the wet cells are cycled very many percent down, they give up a lot of life. Three years as a house battery in a Foretravel would be doing well for them.

All of our Detroit 8-71s had two wet 8Ds to start. They lasted many years but were checked for water level and specific gravity once a week and plugged in if down even a tiny bit plus every one was started and most were driven each day.

A battery in a Prius can "shallow cycle" tens of thousands of times in it's lifetime. Bay area engineers reprogrammed some to be able to be driven without the engine until about 20% of it's capacity has been used. So you can drive it downtown and back without the engine starting and then plug it in at home but this shortens the battery life considerably. And at over $3000 for batteries...

Pierce



Pierce

Re: BATTERY EXPLOSION

Reply #23 –
Battery Money ?, then should buy the cheapest tires. :-(

Re: BATTERY EXPLOSION

Reply #24 –
Quote from: Kent Speers –
Dave the primary reason is MooLah. A wet cell 8D is about $150 from Sam's and will last at least three years on average.
I must admit that it was MooLah was a consideration when I replaced my old house gel batteries.  And I did consider buying new two 8D gel cells, and even considered wet cells.  But in the end, after lots of research, I opted for the AGMs and haven't looked back.  My chassis start batteries are still wet cell, but they are out in the open in the engine compartment .

I think two of my best decisions concerning our U225 has been the Progressive Dynamics 70 amp charger/converter w/charge wizard, and AGM house batteries.

Re: BATTERY EXPLOSION

Reply #25 –
Quote from: Pierce & Gaylie Stewart –
For those who somehow might think I was insulting Dave, here is a great link to some old posters featuring the Michelin Man: http://vintage.artehouse.com/perl/search.pl?searchIn=fuzzyImageKeywords&search=michelin&pgNumber=2&pgNumber=2

OK, back to batteries. Last point is if you spend a lot of good money on quality batteries but don't maintain them while your rig is in storage, a lot of $$ could be wasted. Even with the master switch turned off, there is enough drain to flatten them fairly quickly. Without a trickle charger, disconnecting cables is the only sure way to prevent discharge and even then, summer with high humidity will still flatten them in a month or so.

Pierce

Or a solar panel if applicable