Opinion Wanted: US Battery vs Trojan

[angus99]

For anyone else considering US Battery, we have eight 6-volt 305 AGMs. They are used in floor polishers, etc and are true deep-cycle. 312 AH per pair for a total of 1248. Footprint is close to an L16, but shorter by a couple inches. We’ve had them for five years and are very pleased.

 

[FF]

"You outta watch a video of lithium batteries being “made”
They literally take a bunch of what look like “D” cells and weld them together.
I for one was pretty unimpressed"

While this is true all the tiny batts in the case do not wear out at the same time.

Many off grid folks will purchase old packs , take the batch apart and discard the bad units and reassemble.

Either one has time or money ,,,,,,,,,

 

[sunchaser]

This thread, for our specific use, makes me appreciate our Trojan 105 FLAs even more. Cheap, they work fine, fit in our original build boxes, super reliable, only need water every 4-5 months and last easily for 7-8 years. They are found anywhere in our cruising grounds and made in the USA.

 

[AlanT]

...... but FLA just don’t interest me. Checking water level cuts into my nap time. LOL

Me too! Unfortunately having sold my AGM equipped boat, I have just bought a boat with freshly installed FLA batteries so am going to lose some nap time over the next 5 years or so!
~Alan

 

[BrianG]

Old sailor's maxim: "US for batteries, Trojans for condoms"

 

[Airstream345]

Made a little progress today. Tomorrow we wire everything up.

 

[Beaverlake]

For anyone else considering US Battery, we have eight 6-volt 305 AGMs. They are used in floor polishers, etc and are true deep-cycle. 312 AH per pair for a total of 1248. Footprint is close to an L16, but shorter by a couple inches. We’ve had them for five years and are very pleased.

A very well done installation - as you of course know. Great cable work, well secured, cable/current flow well thought out, etc. Best practices!

 

[sunchaser]

A very well done installation - as you of course know. Great cable work, well secured, cable/current flow well thought out, etc. Best practices!

Agreed. Angus, I note the disconnect switch (?) on the inverter 12 volt feed. Do you have a 110 volt inverter bypass switch?

 

[angus99]

Agreed. Angus, I note the disconnect switch (?) on the inverter 12 volt feed. Do you have a 110 volt inverter bypass switch?

Just had one delivered, Tom. I plan to reconfigure the main panel in the saloon to make room for it. That will allow us to draw 50 amps or so on the house bus vs the 30 that the Magnum pass-through restricts us to. Lots of project in front of that one, though, I’m afraid.

 

[angus99]

A very well done installation - as you of course know. Great cable work, well secured, cable/current flow well thought out, etc. Best practices!

Thanks! There were a few more tweaks and loose ends to tie up after the photo, but that was close to the finished project. The design credit goes to Bob Campbell, who ran a marine electrical business in Annapolis for many years and now consults. I spent many hours on the phone and on-line with Bob while I was planning and installing and he visited the boat and inspected the work before it was energized. He knows his stuff, does everything per ABYC and there isn’t a nicer guy to work with.

 

[sunchaser]

Just had one delivered, Tom. I plan to reconfigure the main panel in the saloon to make room for it. That will allow us to draw 50 amps or so on the house bus vs the 30 that the Magnum pass-through restricts us to. Lots of project in front of that one, though, I’m afraid.

Our Blueseas bypass switch is placed a few feet from the inverter. Sorry I can't send a picture, boat locked down in BC.

 

[ecruise]

Trojan Batteries

From what I was told, Trojan brand batteries are actually Interstate, and the specs are the same as Interstate Extreme HD series batteries. We have 6 Interstate GC2's as house batteries and 3 group 24's for starting & thruster. We've been very pleased with our set up.

 

[rjwilliams11741]

Trojan vs US Battery

When we owned Freedom we used both Trojan and US Battery batteries over the the years. We were happy with both and would have gone with either brand if new batteries were needed.

 

[sunchaser]

From what I was told, Trojan brand batteries are actually Interstate,.

Trojan has a very good website discussing company, products and battery info in general. They are made in two plants in Southern California and two near Atlanta.

Johnson Controls owns Interstate, manufacturing batteries in Monterey MX and at several JC sites in the US.

 

[Knot Thirsty]

Check battery posts

HI. A couple years ago we (royal we.....it was done by a marine certified electrician who used to design and instal electrical systems for police and fireboats for Metalcraft Marine) replaced my 8D house batteries with four 6 volt Trojan batteries. Apart from size and power, which is similar to what you quote for US Battery, they have very solid battery posts , a HD case and nice caps and O rings which make it nicevtubadd fluid.. We also went with military grade battery post connectors which are far superior to the regular automotive style everyone is using and much better than wire ends that your pic shows you'd need for the US batteries. I'm assuming your running very large wire (I believe in rhe area of 0 AWG...sorry I'm.blanking on wire sizes but I'm taking in the 5/8" dia range ) so you'll want a comparable clamp system versus a ring terminal.
I believe there are only a very small # of battery manufacturers in the US but many label manufacturers and people love to sell what's in stock, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, but my experience has taught me more often than not that the best things aren't always stocked because they tend to cost a bit more. I often remind myself that there's always the time and ultimately the money to do it right the second time around though.
Happy boating!

 

[psneeld]

Interesting, most pros I have heard prefer screw posts with lugs over post clamps.

The Trojan batts I have bought come in the full variety of wire attachment selection.

 

[Airstream345]

Bank is installed, secured, etc. Ordered 4/0 cables , fuse, disconnect and bus bars. Hope to be wrapped up and anchoring out soon.

Sorting out the PO’s alternator decisions now.

 

[Lou_tribal]

One question about these firefly batteries. Up here they are selling at about 5x the price of a LA group 31 I have for a similar capacity (around 110Ah).
Are they more than 5x better in term of durability?

L

 

[Airstream345]

One question about these firefly batteries. Up here they are selling at about 5x the price of a LA group 31 I have for a similar capacity (around 110Ah).
Are they more than 5x better in term of durability?

L

Three big advantages:

1. The usable Ah is close to 65% compared to 35% for FLA so you need fewer batteries.

2. They advertise 3X the number of deep cycles compared to FLA

3. They are very tolerant of partial discharge so they cruise well in the real world.

Having compared L16s to Firefly I found the prelim for the same usable Ah to be about 30%. If the lifespan is truly 3X and the discharge tolerance is real it’s an easy upgrade.

In my caveman brain it’s sort of halfway to a lithium battery bank.

 

[grandbanksbayfield]

Trojans Rule!

I had Trojans in my sailboat, first flooded then AGM. They are incredible, you end up replacing them because they are just getting so darned old you cannot believe they are reliable when they are still working like champs. Ten years I snot unusual.

 

[Airstream345]

Just a quick follow up on this post. Everything is installed and re-wired. I’m pretty darn happy with how this project turned out.





I also added Magnum’s battery monitor and automatic generator start kits. Still need to wire up the generator start kit.

 

[w8n4sun]

Nicely done, very impressive!!!!!

Will be nice to get real world feedback on how fast they charge back up and how low you can take them.

 

[Beaverlake]

I’ll add to the nicely done accolade. Good to see you leading the negative off from the post farthest from the positive. Too many folks (and some yards unfortunately) terminate both wires on the first battery in a bank of batteries. Did you make up all your own cables? They look great!

 

[Airstream345]

Thanks. I made up a few when I wasn’t sure how long I’d make a run and re-terminated al of the house connections but I used BestBoatWire.com for most of the cabling.

They made them up and shipped them for less than I could make them up myself.



Here’s what 29 year old terminations look like (all replaced)

 

[w8n4sun]

Yo Airstream, how about a real world condition feedback on how your new house bank is performing? Are the Firefly batteries living up to your expectation?

 

[Airstream345]

The batteries are definitely living up to our expectations however they’ve exposed the lackluster charging capabilities of our older Magnum 2012 inverter/charger.

In an effort to get recharge time down while on the hook (and increase inverter capacity, prep to be solar ready, support auto source switching and a ton of other goodies) were planning for an upgrade to a Victron Quattro this fall.

It’s only money right?

 

[Pau Hana]

Steve, what size charger do you have?

 

[Airstream345]

Magnum ME 2012 so 100 amps

 

[Codger2]

Very interesting thread!

As a lot of you know, I'm now going all electric (Duffy 22' Cuddy) and they have built over 10,000 boats since 1970. The batteries they recommend are Trojan T-105 flooded. I'm going with the Trojan AGMs...Heavier, but require almost no action on my part. Also, I'm going with the Duffy Care program as $1,900/year is a bargain for boat maintenance. Remember, my goal is to continue boating in my 80s & 90s without all the hassles of gas or diesel boat ownership.

http://nebula.wsimg.com/6db386fa710...10CD366C5FF8E5071&disposition=0&alloworigin=1


Battery layout in a Cuddy 22.

 

[Seevee]

After a lot of measuring, figuring, testing and measuring again we came to the realization that there just isn’t enough vertical space in our ER to slide L-16s into battery boxes.

So we returned everything and went with 6 Firefly Oasis G 31s.

View attachment 102878

Airstream,


EXCELLENT CHOICE. I believe that would be my choice if buying batteries today, but my Lifelines will have to do for now. I've got 6 of the Lifelines (6v, 220a in series/parallel). I'd bet you'd get more than double the power from your Oasis that I will, at just a few dollars more.



Keep us posted.