Carver Owners Forum

On my 1994 390, I have a 12V start battery, 2 Trojan T105’s 6V (series connection) for house, and a 12V genset battery, all flooded. Bow thruster (Sideshifter) has 2 AGM 12V connected in series.

Connected batteries after the winter, they were at 93% last November. Connected they were showing 39%. Batteries are all 6 years old. I was going to replace the start, genset and house this year, as if you get stranded it is hard to rope start a 454.

Was looking at AGM, versus flooded. Opinions?

AGM vs flooded is really just whether you can justify the additional cost. They are better in most respects, but a bit more expensive.

Curious how old the batteries were, and also what was the average temp over the winter where you store?

Also, was the 93% after they had sat for a while, or was it how they were charged prior to going into winter storage? If they are now at 39%, that does not sound good for them if they've been sitting that way for a while.

IMHO, flooded. Never had much luck with AGM except in a car starter battery scenario. Bang for the buck you simply cannot go wrong with flooded. 6 years is definitely up there, I tend to change out after 4 but then again I am being over cautious. Shooting for 10 years+ on the Lithium house bank, will see how that pans out with time.

tonyiiiafl wrote:Source of the post ...Batteries are all 6 years old. ...

Oops, sorry, I missed that part!

Thanks Hans for making me re-read it!

Yea, at 6 years old they served their time!! Might squeak another year or two out of them, or just replace now for the peace-of-mind!

I agree. I've been saying for a while that flooded is still the best bang for the buck until newer techs have been out for a long time and proven themselves.

Yup......5 to 6 years for flooded is about it if you really take care of them imo.

Really should have charged them to 100 % before bedtime....maybe if you have room, a couple more 6v for the house bank would be tickatee boo..... ...it is easy to spend your money huh.

went into storage at 93%. There is no electricity to use there and solar is NOT permitted to be left on, or I would have let the solar do its thing. It was a warm winter. We had a few stretches of 0 degrees, but mostly in 20’s . Flooded 6V Trojan T105’s are 4200.00 EACH, AGM ARE $389.00. That is almost double. I was going to see what they come up to on the hour ride back to home port. Then see if charging does anything. I am more prone to replace this season, along with teh start battery. GenSet battery I may let go for another year.

I still use trojan t105'svhouse and other flooded for genset and engines. I will continue on this path for some time. I think if your happy with the setup you have and it lasted 6 yrs it did pretty good. I can't rember if you have a battery monitor Like a victton but keeping water in them and not heavily discharging your house bank you may can get more from your new ones. You could load test what you have currently and get a real feel for their status.

I would highly recommend replacing any batteries related to starting engines and gen. 6 years is pretty much end of life, and batteries are critical to engine performance. I am all flooded. Make sure to purchase a proven brand, this is no place to save $40 difference in off brand products. We have an implement departmart store that sells Interstate batteries, but to there own specs for lower price point. Not comparable to genuine Interstate batteries, but $15 less. Performance and life span are significantly less. As long as you're in the battery compartment, check what charger(s) you have. Previous owners may have replaced original charger with smaller amp units. It really sucks when batteries fail and wreck an entire day or weekend. So easy to avoid disappointment. Good luck! er

I am starting my 4th year with Cummins group 31 1000cca flooded batteries. They used to be $119 CAD each back in late 2019. Here is the thread. viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4923&hilit=cummins&start=10

Just for the heck of it I checked today to see how much they have gone up. Still much cheaper than most anything else I can find but still a 62% increase since then. https://shop.cummins.com/CSSNAStore/s/p ... c_keyword=

I have 5 of these, all of them have been rock solid by the way.