6v batteries from Costco (or somewhere else)

[samhain7]

Hey all. I am travelling to Pittsburgh for my sons Ball tourney.
While there I want to pick up two 6v batteries for my Travel trailer (since they are a fraction of the cost in Canada).
Does anyone have a brand they recommend from Costco or somewhere else (e.g. Walmart).

[westend]

GDE wrote:
Not ALL golf cart dealers wish to deal with folks off the street and they are more than happy to beat you up if you are dumb enough to buy from them.

This is accurate. Fortunately, with a smart phone, one can compare pricing and make a few calls to get a good deal. Springtime is battery activity season for larger GC2 users.

FWIW, I've maintained fleets of 6V batteries, 360 count of Trojan T105's, exactly. They are worth the price if you are a heavy-schedule battery user and can be had from Golf Cart service shops for not that much more than the Costco/Sams versions. Pick a large distributor.

Having said that, operating from a stretched budget, I chose to buy the Duracells from Sams. $190 out the door with no core surrender, tax included, for a pair. They are in year 6 with temp-compensating solar charging, daily. I don't test them for capacity (other than a hydrometer dip every year) because they are going to last a long time.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

were you 24/7 throughout the summer?

[mchero]

15 years ago I purchased 4 Sams Club 6 volts. Proper cabling, and a quality converter, i purchased 60amp progressive dynamics w/charge wizard. Proper care and feeding those batteries lasted me 12 years!
I was living in NH at the time. 1st 8 years no hookups thru the winter. would FULLY charge and hit the disconnect in the fall. Oh, and faithfully kept them above 12 volts.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

red31 in your case you pencil it out to make the cheapo the way to go. But if you have a large solar array, don't live in an area where full sun on the roof raises temperatures to 125F, live next to a gas station in northern Venezuela, then you're all set. What's the percentage of RV'ers in that particular position? Chinese pay insane prices for the gall bladder of endangered animals.

When batteries go bad it destroys vacations for most people. If you vacation on Long Island or the Poconos, it's a lot easier to chew than bad batteries in the Big Bend area of Texas or in Yellowstone Park, or Yosemite. I do not consider the East Coast suburban areas as off grid boondocking.

So your formula is as skewed as taking a hamburger to a Vegan Quiche contest.

[red31]

Too many bogus points FOR ME
looks like 2.5 yrs for cheap o is break even, $90 is a fraction of the diff
30 gallons gets me 2200 miles and the 30 trips to the fuel 200 yrds = 3 miles total over say 9 months.
No gen charging allowed, up abs time for CEF.
nothing to do with the price of tea in china.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1555518/Tea-in-China-costs-six-times-as-much-as-gold.html

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Quadruple redundancies are not picturesque.

Pair of golf car batteries that cost $90 more. How many gallons of gasoline can you buy with ninety dollars? Not that much. How far would you have to drive to refuel?

The Charge Efficiency Factor is important when serious boondocking is involved and not at all important when a chew & spit battery is used for weekend warrior duty.

Take my Kubota for instance. Think I want to run it for five hours recovering batteries to full 1.260 when three hours would do it?

I have fought US Battery GC220 batteries and US Battery L-16 batteries until I was totally exasperated. They resist charging, sulfate faster and die sooner than a Trojan or Rolls. Now what is that worth?

Many of you have experience with your own batteries whereas for decades I might see four or five different banks in one day. "I don't have that kind of money" was just as true in 1980 as it is today. They HAD that kind of money, but they refused to spend it on batteries.

If you do NOT have problems with off-brand warehouse batteries GREAT! If you do have problems with off brand warehouse batteries don't feel alone.

But PLEASE avoid telling everyone that Costco, Sams and other lesser batteries "Are The Way To Go". That statement is a lot different than stating "Cheapos are the way to go FOR ME".

It gets discouraging when off-grid batteries trash their electrolyte cell equality after 10 days and the batteries are four months old. A weekend warrior will seldom encounter problems. Off grid camping brings out the Mr. Hyde in cheap batteries.

As Mark Daugherty president of Ramcar battery used to tell me about his GC220's "Not everyone needs the superior characteristics of the Trojan" He was and is absolutely correct.

I could have purchased cheap-o batteries, trucked them to Long Beach, shipped them to the Port of Lazaro Cardenas, then jumped through hoops getting them 28 miles north up the side of a hill. Or ferried a Chinese AGM battery 1445 miles below the border. But one thing stopped me -- common sense.

Cheap-o golf car batteries are perfect for SOME people. But they can be disaster incarnate for the majority. When I set up off-grid homes the average life span of the Trojan T-105 varied between EIGHT to TEN years. Off-grid, no public power, ever.

Do you boondock even 30 days a year? Do your cheap-o golf-cars last eight to ten years?

Cheap-o golf car batteries weigh the same as a Trojan. Now what could possibly make them THAT much cheaper? Hmmmmmm? Power windows? Leather seats?

[shum02]

BTW you can use your Canadian Costco membership in the US and vice versa.

[red31]

I might drive the extra 30 mile round trip to pay double for batteries that where 3 times better than the ones close by at 1/2 the price.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Nope. Nurse Ratchett would have snagged all the keys. I went by Costco last Friday. Had to stare. Gasoline was xxx sixteen cents less than the majors up and down the street. Most were little sedans. Twelve gallons? An hour in line? Lined up all the way to the boulevard and then some. Speaks volumes... Or my Favorite...Harrah's Casino. People stuck in a hour maybe 2 hour line for Thanksgiving so they could save eight bucks on a Turkey dinner. I and my mother ate with silver on linen. "They" ate in a roaring chow hall. SEVEN OUT YOUR FORTY DOLLAR STACK --- AWAY.

[Puddles]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
True value is only established when you divide the number of kWh conducted into the retail price at time of battery failure. In effect "who declares length and number of vacations and full 50% DOD discharges?" And yet there is a further part. The CEF. Charge efficiency factor. The amount of energy (gasoline) needed to recharge a depleted battery.

Many people have a distorted sense of economy -- like driving all the way across town to save ten cents per gallon of gasoline.

Money is money and auditing the true value of a battery purchase is fraught with peril if only one of the components is shown (distortion).

Again I will state this: WHY OH WHY DO MOST GOLF COURSES INSIST ON TROJAN BATTERIES?

Are they spendthrift? Are they stupid? Do they get a fantastic discount that makes their T105 purchases cheaper than running down to a club warehouse? Does Trojan bribe them with free batteries for their personal cars?

May I suggest a reality check and a harder search than just calling one vendor?

Hey... have a slightly diff. view on your sense of economy... if everyone was prepared to drive across town, a ten cent price variation would not exist.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Too many successful meaning large meaning many members meaning decades old insist on Trojan. In other words if it's a weed patch don't look for Trojan.

There are good restaurants that use Heinz catsup and greasy spoons that use ACME faint red sweet liquid. If you stumble across a cockroach palace it does not mean the sickening pink paste is the standard of the industry. These big guys use computers and kilowatts are analyzed down to the cent. They cannot be bamboozled.

[samhain7]

dpgllg wrote:
Samhain,

I live just outside of Pittsburgh. If you tell me where you will be staying I can look up places close to you and let you know.

If your South of Pittsburgh I could meet up with you and go to Sam's Club. I have a membership there.

Let me know!
Dave

Hey Dave!
Thanks for the generous offer.we are staying at
2785 Freeport Road
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15238

[Gdetrailer]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
True value is only established when you divide the number of kWh conducted into the retail price at time of battery failure. In effect "who declares length and number of vacations and full 50% DOD discharges?" And yet there is a further part. The CEF. Charge efficiency factor. The amount of energy (gasoline) needed to recharge a depleted battery.

Many people have a distorted sense of economy -- like driving all the way across town to save ten cents per gallon of gasoline.

Money is money and auditing the true value of a battery purchase is fraught with peril if only one of the components is shown (distortion).

Again I will state this: WHY OH WHY DO MOST GOLF COURSES INSIST ON TROJAN BATTERIES?

Are they spendthrift? Are they stupid? Do they get a fantastic discount that makes their T105 purchases cheaper than running down to a club warehouse? Does Trojan bribe them with free batteries for their personal cars?

May I suggest a reality check and a harder search than just calling one vendor?

Mex, I highly respect your opinion, BUT..

Not ALL golf courses "insist" on Trojans.

In spite of the fact that most golfers have no objection to dumping a hundred $ or better on one round of golf, many golf courses operate on a shoestring budget that simply is not going to afford expensive batteries..

I grew up with a golf course in my parents back yard, was a private club for many years, fell on hard times and to attract more business they opened it to the public for nearly 15 yrs.. Recently a couple of yrs ago, the original private share membership finally sold their interest to a another exclusive club membership and went private once again..

The course eventually closed down after a couple of yrs and now is nothing more than grown up weeds.. I go by it nearly every day.

GREED.

My parents neighbor when I was growing up was at one time a fantastic golfer even did well on some pro tours back in the 50's and 60's.. He had his back yard setup with putting green and even a shooting range.

He used to have me help him go get broken golf carts so he could fix them for the golf course in the 1970s.

The golf course wasn't willing to pay for golf cart dealers to fix their stuff..

[MEXICOWANDERER]

True value is only established when you divide the number of kWh conducted into the retail price at time of battery failure. In effect "who declares length and number of vacations and full 50% DOD discharges?" And yet there is a further part. The CEF. Charge efficiency factor. The amount of energy (gasoline) needed to recharge a depleted battery.

Many people have a distorted sense of economy -- like driving all the way across town to save ten cents per gallon of gasoline.

Money is money and auditing the true value of a battery purchase is fraught with peril if only one of the components is shown (distortion).

Again I will state this: WHY OH WHY DO MOST GOLF COURSES INSIST ON TROJAN BATTERIES?

Are they spendthrift? Are they stupid? Do they get a fantastic discount that makes their T105 purchases cheaper than running down to a club warehouse? Does Trojan bribe them with free batteries for their personal cars?

May I suggest a reality check and a harder search than just calling one vendor?