6v Golf Cart Batteries

[J8manski]

So I know everyone says to use the search function, which sometimes can be very useful. However other times can lead to nothing. Now is one of those times I am led to nothing with my search. I also guess this is a Electrical question and also a Modification and Upgrade thread.

With this being said, here we go. My wife and I recently purchased our camper and received it in April. We have done 2 small camping trips with it so far. 1 of which had Full hook ups, while the other was electric only. The only issue I ran into with the electric only was I wish I had a little bit more water, I only have 1 tank that is 32 gallons. That is an upgrade I plan on doing in the near future. Our next trip is planned for mid July, and is at a State Park with no hook ups at all, and it has me worrying about running on my single 12v Marine/RV battery for the 4 days we are there. So I knew I wanted to do a dual 6V golf cart battery upgrade at some point in time, but was planning further down the road as they can be quite pricey. Well, I mentioned to my dad who knows the owner of an Interstate store in my city about possibly picking up another Marine/RV battery cheap or possibly what deal I can get on golf cart batteries. After speaking with him, the owner offered to buy my Marine/RV battery back at FULL price (as it was a brand new Interstate battery when I picked up my camper), and apply that towards the 2 Golf Cart batteries. This was a deal I could not refuse. So, I now am the proud owner of 2 6V Gold cart batteries I have yet to install them as I am currently charging them up in my garage, and I do not have new battery boxes yet for them, nor do I have the jumper cable to wire them in series yet. My question is, did I do a good switch? How long could I plan on these batteries lasting for a camping trip? (estimated, as I know there are a ton of factors involved) Also, should I look into upgrading my factory AC-DC converter to charge these?

Old Battery
Interstate HD24-DP
100 RC @ 25 Amps
$91.95 including core charge

New Batteries
Interstate PF-GC2-UTL
383 RC @ 25 Amps
210 AH @ 20 Hr
$119.95 including core charge.

Trading in my old battery at full price, my total out the door price was $159.79 for the 2 6V batteries.

I will post pictures up once I get it hooked up and wired, maybe a week?

Camper in question is a 2018 Cherokee WolfPup 18TO

[007matman]

Here are the boxes I purchased for my 6v batteries.

NOCO Black HM306BKS Single 6V Snap-Top Box for Automotive, Marine, and RV Batteries https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00316KU6E..._nJw8CbY424JB6

I bought interstate batteries from Costco. Should be very similar.

[J8manski]

Those are the boxes I am looking at too Haha I know there are other brand boxes out there. However I have always had stuff that has NOCO boxes installed and never had an issue. Glad to see someone else not have issues with the 6v cart NOCO battery boxes. How long do your batteries last while boondocking? How long does it take to charge with factory converter?

[007matman]

Originally Posted by J8manski

Those are the boxes I am looking at too Haha I know there are other brand boxes out there. However I have always had stuff that has NOCO boxes installed and never had an issue. Glad to see someone else not have issues with the 6v cart NOCO battery boxes. How long do your batteries last while boondocking? How long does it take to charge with factory converter?

I just put them in a couple of weeks ago. We haven't used them..

They were fully charged when we got them.

Sorry, I'm not much help. I bought some large guage wire (not sure what size it was as the package wasn't marked. It is as big as the existing battery wire though. Drilled some holes in the top of one of the battery boxes to mount a cutoff switch. Drilled more holes to run the wire through.

This is similar to my cutoff switch. Ampper Battery Switch, 12-48 V Battery Power Cut Master Switch Disconnect Isolator for Car, Vehicle, RV and Boat (On/Off) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07413JWLD..._q5w8Cb8RH3YPR

It works well.

[NMWildcat]

Great trade! Will they last 4 days? Maybe, if you really watch your consumption close and don't run the heater or lights much. Knowing myself and our RV, two days and one night is about the most we can go w/o dropping below 50%. We have 2 Interstate Marine series 27. You don't say if you have a way to charge while boondocking. If you plan to do more, you need a generator, solar, or both
Happy camping!

[Reprise]

Those are pretty much the boxes I was using (my current trailer has a battery tray sized 'for one' - so I now keep them in a modified truck bed toolbox bolted to the trailer frame).

Anyway...the only complaint I had was that rainwater will flow through the vents on top, and you'll open the box to find the battery sitting in water up to the top lip of the box. Not an extreme shock hazard (think of your auto / truck batteries in the engine compartment), but can be a pain dealing with.

You don't want to block the vents, obviously, especially with a flooded lead-acid type.

Other than that, especially comparing them in price to other options, not a bad choice. I got mine at Batteries Plus, where I also got the batteries.

Oh, and $60 per 6V battery, net? That's about 1/2 of what I paid. The only better deal is if you can find something like a 'black box' (unlabeled) Trojan or Crown, and those are $20 more, for starters. So... you got a great deal.

As far as longevity when boondocking...you'll probably get a couple of days with them, depending on load, and assuming no charging resource available.
You'll have about 100AH available with that setup (50% max discharge).

[J8manski]

Well I am hoping that the weather warms up here a bit by July and I wont need the heater. As of now, we are significantly cooler then we were last year at this time. So hopefully the batteries will only be for LED lights when going to bed, the fridge(propane), water pump and possible water heater(propane).

As for price. That was $119 per battery. But the total with trading in my original battery was $160, so I am at $90 per battery including the $25 core charge(maybe a NYS thing?) each and taxes.

As for your battery box filling up with water. What I noticed about my 12V battery box when I was taking the battery out. There are 4 3/8"ish holes drilled in the bottom to let water drain out. Might do that with my new 6V boxes as well.

I was really hoping these 2 6V batteries would last me 4 days no problem. Its a bummer hearing this news. From the sounds of it, if I had kept my 12V Marine/RV battery I would only last like 1 day on battery? I thought 6V batteries had like 3-4 times more useable capacity then a 12V RV/Marine battery? I guess the only way Ill know how long they will last me is by taking a trip with them lol Trial and error is always the best for statistics haha

[pgandw]

We set our golf cart batteries up to run our A-frame for 4 nights without recharging. But we live outside, not inside, so we modded the camper so the heater (or Fantastic Fan in the vent), the fridge control board, and the propane/CO detector are the only loads.

For 4 days/nights, we have to keep the daily consumption to around 25AH. The fridge control board and the propane/CO detector together draw 0.4A, or 9.6AH/day. The heater fan needs 3.0A, so if the heater runs 5 hours/night, we use 15AH/day. If we are using the heater modestly (thermostat at 60 on a 38 degree night) we can just make it all 4 nights. If you can keep usage to 35AH/day, you get 3 nights.

Easiest way to figure this out is with an ammeter (amps scale on a multimeter). Remove the fuse for one DC circuit at a time and measure across the fuse holder. Use just one device at a time.

I put a switch on the stereo to turn it off completely. Also installed a voltmeter (with a switch) to give an approximate reading of battery SOC. When voltmeter drops to 12.0, it's time to recharge the batteries somehow.

hope this helps
Fred W
2019 Flagstaff T21TBHW A-frame with 2 Costco Interstate GC-2 batteries, 210AH.
2008 Hyundai Entourage minivan
camping Colorado and adjacent states one weekend at a time

[Reprise]

Originally Posted by pgandw

I put a switch on the stereo to turn it off completely.

You make a good point with the radio, and I recognize it as a big drain on my batteries.

I like to use the radio when I'm in the trailer, so while that switch is a great idea, it wouldn't work so well for me (but it *would* help when I'm not in the trailer, at least, so I probably should do this, too).

I don't have the volume cranked, outside speakers going, using it as an A/V passthru for a TV, etc. Just the two inside speakers, at a low volume.

Yet, it's still a big drain, for what is essentially a car stereo (look at the back of one of the Furrion units, and you'll see what I mean).

You'd think the radio wouldn't be such a power hog against a deep-cycle battery, and yet it is. It's so bad, that the radio doesn't even have to be 'on' - just having the 12v power connected to it is a drain.

So if you're not a radio junkie, like me, it's a pretty good idea to rig up a switch, like this poster did. Your battery (-ies) will thank you.

[pgandw]

The car stereos that are put in lower end RVs (A-frames, PUPs, and some others) have a "feature" that causes them to use a lot of power in your RV.

Car and truck stereos come with 2 power wires. One runs through the ignition relay, and is the primary power for the stereo. The second wire is for keep-alive and bypasses the ignition relay in a car or truck. The keep-alive keeps your settings and radio presets in memory - these disappear whenever you disconnect the vehicle battery.

In an RV with a car stereo, both wires are connected full time to 12V. So your stereo is always on. If you turn the stereo "off" at its own switch, any momentary change in voltage (such as plugging into the tow vehicle or AC power) will cause the stereo to turn itself back on. On my A-frame, I can hear the speakers "pop" when this happens.

That is why I put a switch into BOTH wires of the stereo power. It means I lose the keep-alive function, but I rarely use the radio function. Changing the equalizer settings to desired is not a hardship given the number of times I actually use the stereo.

Fred W
2019 Flagstaff T21TBHW A-frame
2008 Hyundai Entourage minivan
camping Colorado and adjacent states one weekend at a time

[Flat_twin]

An on/off switch for the radio will be the next mod. Replaced the single 12v, 75 ah battery this weekend with a pair of Crown CR-235 batteries.

[Trawlerphil]

Fred is right-- it is a spreadsheet exercise. Figure your loads and duration and you'll have a good idea of how long the batteries will last. With GC2 batteries, you can draw them down more than the average group 27. I had 8 Trojans in my boat and I would spend all my time in the exumas and abacos on the hook. I would run the generator 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour at night. We carry a 3500 watt inverter/generator in the truck if we are boondocking. So far, my 2 GC2s have held up with no problems. The fan on the "furnace" may be your biggest draw if you need heat.

[camaraderie]

Your new 6V batteries have 210 amp hours so you can safely use 105 of those before recharging.
Your old group 24 had 75 or so amp hours (under the same conditions) and you could safely use half of that or 37 amp hours. So you have ROUGHLY 3x the available amp hours to use before you need a recharge.

One thing you might wanna do is to get yourself a CLAMP AC/DC multimeter that will let you clamp your red battery wire to read AMPS (current). Then turn on your radio and see how many amps it draws. The turn on your interior light or small TV and see how many amps they draw. If an item draws 5 amps...then using it for one hour uses 5 of your available amp hours...use it 2 hours and you've used 10.
Once you know how much your key items draw...you can plan your use for the number of days you'll be gone.
An AC/DC clamp meter that is decent can be had for about 50 bucks on Amazon. Useful for many camping electrical issues/problems.

[CincyGus]

As someone that dry camped for 3-4 days sometimes with just a pair of group 24's before I knew anything about batteries here are some other things you can do to save some juice.

Buy a couple solar powered lanterns to use in the camper at night for the living area. They charge during the day when you don't need them and are ready to light up an area in the camper when you come in until you go to bed. Saves you from running your lights inside off the batteries and buys you some time.

Buy a battery operated fan to tuck in a window to cool the camper off at night.
https://smile.amazon.com/O2COOL-Batt...%2C134&sr=8-11 This one is great!

Pull the stereo drain by either pulling the fuse for it, usually in the back of it or putting a switch on it as you have described.


Buy a nice battery pack such as this to charge your phones, tablets, etc. helps save some additional juice.
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B06XZ6KS...i-a=B06XZ6KSG3

Doing the above and just being a good power miser and turning off lights/fans/etc while camping should get you 4 days.

[Flat_twin]

A separate 24v lithium battery specifically made for cpap machines (good for four nights) was the best solution for boondocking with my wife's cpap. Not having to worry about how to keep a 24v appliance happy for 8 hrs every night will allow us to go 4 days on on the available 115 ah. We use a separate battery powered fan at night if needed. Our biggest electrical splurge is watching a DVD movie or some TV for a couple hours in the evening.

[TimVWulp]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GCE-G-Dual-...-/282981414026
I bought this 6 volt battery box for 2 AGM golf cart battery's. I have a flagstaff V-Lite that I replaced the old battery box with this one.


Hope this helps Tim

[Trawlerphil]

I know conventional wisdom says never use more than 50% of your battery capacity, but it seems to me golf courses abuse their golf cart batteries regularly which explains why the plates are thicker and they weigh 60 lbs. apiece. My Trojan T-105s would last me 5 years on average living aboard my trawler and I'm pretty sure I broke the 50% rule regularly.

[FFred]

"My question is, did I do a good switch?"

YES! You got a great deal, the RV "marine batts are a poor choice for Anything!

A nice Boom Box might solve the big drain of a car radio.

[pmsherman]

I didn't see answers to your questions in the original post of this thread.



Your only comparison point is the reserve capacity (RC) ratings for the batteries. Since the two 6V batteries are in series, the ratings for a single battery will be the same for the pair. Your 12V battery's RC of 100 (minutes) means that its capacity is (100/60)*25 = 41.7AH. Two of these batteries in parallel would have 83.4AH capacity which when combined with the use not more than 50% rule, would give you just under 42AH of power. The 6V batteries, rated at 383 minutes RC have (383/60)*25 = 159.6AH capacity. Again, with the 50% rule, the two 6V batteries should supply 79.8AH of capacity. This is almost twice the capacity of the 12V batteries.


This mathematical comparison doesn't tell the entire story. The 6V batteries have solid plates instead of the grid plates that are probably in the 12V battery. These plates are much more resistant to damage with deep discharge cycles than grid plates. This means that the 50% rule can be violated without significantly shortening the battery's lifespan in cycles.



You said nothing about your current battery charger. The general rule is that you should have a charger whose output is 25% of the battery's capacity in AH. This means that your charger (or converter) should have at least a 40AH capacity. Multi-stage converters will recharge batteries faster than single stage units. Units with an equalization phase, usually found in four stage units will do a better job of keeping the batteries conditioned which will extend their life. Don't forget that equalization will boil off more of the electrolyte than float charging so you will need to monitor the electrolyte level more often and add distilled water as necessary.



It's almost impossible to check the electrolyte level in the batteries in my Georgetown. I solved this problem by replacing the cell caps with a permanent watering system that includes a popup indicator that tells me when it's time to add electrolyte.


Phil

[larry2c]

To the OP's original question, I sure think you got a good deal!

I'd like to add to the 6V battery discussion. Last year I bought a pair of Duracell 210 AH batteries and I'm very happy with them. We got them from BatteriesPlus and they were $110 each. Works great for me but I'm curious if others have used these batteries (not wanting to steal the OP's thread, just adding options)