6 Volt GC2 batteries

[JGriff]

Hello All

Has anyone purchased and used Costco's 6 volt golf cart batteries.

https://www.costco.com/Interstate-6-...100476406.html

price is great, especially coming from Canada to Washington State. Being electrically challenged I'm not sure if this is good for my travel trailer.

I need to replace one of my 12 volt batteries as one cell is dead in one of the 2 batteries. It's an Interstate SRM24.

TIA

[007matman]

There is like a billion people on this site that have done this including me.

They work great.

Not a difficult mod. Run your existing positive from the camper to a positive terminal on one battery, connect the negative on that battery to the positive on the other and the negative on that battery to the camper ground.

All done.

There is a plethora of battery boxes. Here is the ones I used.

NOCO Black HM306BKS Single 6V... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00316KU6E...p_mob_ap_share

You need 2

[tomkatb]

Assuming these two replace the two 12’s. New/old often do not play well together.

Now, get a voltmeter! I purchased the Bluetooth BM2 from Amazon for $40.

Read off my phone. It even graphs usage, or charge.

Treat them well and they last a long time.

[JGriff]

Hi

Yes they will replace the 12v's. I to have the BM2 and it does work great.

I might have not worded my question properly, but I am wondering about the Costco 6V GC-2 batteries. Any experience with them ? Are they good ? I know they are made by Interstate.
Where I live here a Interstate 24 battery, which is what I need to replace, is $180 or I can purchase 2 of Costco's 6v GC batteries for $99 US or $262 Can and I am already going to Washington State.

[bikendan]

Yep literally thousands of posts on this subject and along with Sam's Club, are quite popular with the RV community.

[tomkatb]

Actually, mine were installed by the dealer on our 2018 Hathaway.

They are Interstate batteries.

As I have been told there are really only a few manufacturers and lots of different labels applied.

For us, batteries, these, are just no issue. That’s’s the goal.

[JGriff]

Thank you to all of you.

Looks like I am going shopping at Costco

[alolson]

X PL

[pgandw]

I think the GC-2 Interstates from Costco or the Duracells from Sams Club are great values. You can spend a lot more on Trojans or other "name brand" GC-2s, but AT MOST you will get an extra year of battery life for the extra money. Take reasonable care (add distilled water when needed) of your GC-2s, and you should get 5+ years out of them. It's basically add water, but otherwise forget about them.

One advantage of Costco/Interstate GC-2s in my neck of the woods is that they are sold in large numbers to RV and golf cart owners; the stock is always fresh.

Fred W
2019 Flagstaff T21TBHW A-frame with Costco/Interstate GC-2 batteries
2008 Hyundai Entourage minivan

[camaraderie]

Well...you will get hundreds more cycles from a GC2 from Trojan or the other high quality deep cycle mfrs.... but having said that...on a cost per cycle basis...it is probably in favor of the Costco/Sams models at their low prices.
They will work just fine as others have said. What you MUST do is replace BOTH 12V batteries as mixing old, new and different types WILL shorten the life of your new batteries. Must be tough selling batteries in Canada when most live close to the border!

[Telstar]

Replace both at the same time. I’m looking to replace mine, Costco has a great price, but they don’t Cary the heavy duty. Sam’s Club has the Harvey duty at $128

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by Telstar

Replace both at the same time. I’m looking to replace mine, Costco has a great price, but they don’t Cary the heavy duty. Sam’s Club has the Harvey duty at $128

Heavy Duty what? 6v, 12v, 8v?
By the way, suggesting Sam's Club doesn't help the OP. All the Sam's Club warehouses in Washington State, were closed down.

[007matman]

I think they're speaking about this battery..

230ah @ 20a, the Costco interstate battery is 210ah @20a

I don't know how much heavier duty it is but it does have a slightly higher rating.

https://m.samsclub.com/ip/duracell-g...lp_product_1_3

[pmsherman]

I changed my 2-12V batteries for two Costco 6V golf cart batteries almost three years ago. The batteries have worked great so far. I also purchased a "permanent install" battery watering system to keep them properly filled with electrolyte. All six cells have replacement caps that have float valves in them that show when the cell needs fluid. The caps are connected with tubing and a hand pump quickly refills any low cell. The float valves prevent overfilling the cells. This system is necessary in my 2011 Georgetown because the batteries are located in a basement compartment where it's impossible to look into the cells to check the electrolyte level.


I have recently had a slightly different problem. I installed a battery cutoff switch which appeared to work well. This was installed on the + side of the battery because the threaded posts are a little too short to get all of the cables and a nut to hold them in place on that post. Unfortunately, the disconnect switch doesn't carry enough current to support my inverter. This was determined by measuring the voltage on both sides of the disconnect when under load. There was over a 1V drop across the disconnect.,


With the master disconnect set to OFF, the parasitic drain and self discharge takes over two months to draw the batteries down to 50% SOC. Since I'm at the rig once a month to run the generator, I don't have concerns about the batteries getting drained.


Phil

[Telstar]

Glad to hear someone had success with the Costco GC batteries. My existing Interstate batteries that need replacing are ratted at 115 min/ 216 amps. The Costco Interstate is ratted at 105 min/210 amps. The Sam’s battery is 120 min/220 amps. Since the Costco ones are so much cheaper I’m going to try them.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by camaraderie

Well...you will get hundreds more cycles from a GC2 from Trojan or the other high quality deep cycle mfrs.... but having said that...on a cost per cycle basis...it is probably in favor of the Costco/Sams models at their low prices.
They will work just fine as others have said. What you MUST do is replace BOTH 12V batteries as mixing old, new and different types WILL shorten the life of your new batteries. Must be tough selling batteries in Canada when most live close to the border!

The comment above doesn't make sense. The OP is proposing to replace two 12-volt batteries wired in parallel with two 6-volt batteries wired in series.

If someone were to replace just one 12-volt battery with a 6-volt battery, how would he do it? He can't. In series he would have 18 volts, not 12, and would blow out all his light bulbs--and the converter wouldn't be able to re-charge them because it only puts out 14 volts max. In parallel, the 12-volt battery would rapidly be discharged to 6 volts and the camper would only be provided with 6 volts--only enough to light the lights to a dim red.

Larry