Over batteried?

When we bought our boat it did not have a generator. It has six 6 volt golf cart house batteries. Now that we have a gen set, I am thinkin' of getting rid of two of the golf cart batteries for economic reasons. We do not anchor out all that much and do not have an invertor. Any thoughts out there?

ancora said:

When we bought our boat it did not have a generator. It has six 6 volt golf cart house batteries. Now that we have a gen set, I am thinkin' of getting rid of two of the golf cart batteries for economic reasons. We do not anchor out all that much and do not have an invertor. Any thoughts out there?

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Why not leve em in place... economic reasons??

Probably overkill if you don't mre than overnight and don't plan on excessive DC loads. Me...I'd keep 6 unless you really need the space and the last 2 golf cart batts I bought only cost $220 for 2.

I would agree with keeping them. The space has been setup for them, the wiring is in place and having them could be handy.

Ancora:

If all you are going to do is an occasional overnight on the hook, then even just two 6V golf cart batteries will give you plenty of capacity.

David

They make good ballast. But if you need the space you can do without them.

Put me in David's camp here too Ancora. You know your usage better than any of us. When its time to change my batteries out we'll get rid of one of our three 12 volts. I see nothing to gain in our case with having three.

Sent by Craig from my iPhone using Trawler

Getting 110 lbs off the boat is always a good idea. I do have an inverter and my house bank is 2 6 volts. Works fine for a three day weekend in my application. 4 should be fine for you with a genny onboard.

I am retired and on a fixed income. Buying two less batteries means more money for fuel.

ancora said:

I am retired and on a fixed income. Buying two less batteries means more money for fuel.

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ancora - In your OP on this thread... you did not alude to what you mention above. Now with "buying two less bateries" menioned I can agree with two less batts - I thought you meant that you were simply "getting rid of two" batts simply for S&G!

"Now that we have a gen set, I am thinkin' of getting rid of two of the golf cart batteries for economic reasons."

Art said:

ancora - In your OP on this thread... you did not alude to what you mention above. Now with "buying two less bateries" menioned I can agree with two less batts - I thought you meant that you were simply "getting rid of two" batts simply for S&G!

"Now that we have a gen set, I am thinkin' of getting rid of two of the golf cart batteries for economic reasons."

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Yes. If you want the right answers, you have to ask the right questions.

You can probably get by with two less batteries.

Two 6vdc golf cart batteries are more or less the equivelent of one 8D. So four golf cart batteries is the equivelent of two 8Ds, one for house and one for start.

Since it was built our boat was set up with two 8Ds only and it worked okay. But we were always a bit concerned about having enough house power.

Several years ago we changed to six golf cart batteries, four for house and two for start. This has in effect doubled our house power and we've found it very nide to have that cushion.

We also have a generator and an inverter/charger, but we still are much happier with the extra house battery power available. While we are still frugal with power we don't have to be AS frugal now.