New 8D batteries

sunchaser said:

I'm the outlier here. My 8 Ds work quite fine and provide good ballast. This is a trawler forum where ballast is not a bad word.

I use three 8Ds, 2 for engine starts and 1 for genset. and am quite happy with them. There is an already setup space for each and every five years the local yard spends about an hour lifting the main engine starts in and out. The first genset went 8 years with no problem.

Get some prices, question the crowd advice and make your own decision. 8Ds can be very cheap. Sticking with what works has no downside unless you insist on being the strong back rather than using a young buck.

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Thanks for saying what I was thinking!

Not a darn thing wrong with using 8d's as starting batteries.

Both of my diesel pickups, and my Excursion (one Cummins, two Navistar) came factory stock with 2 group 31's as start batteries I believe. My boat came factory stock with one 8D for each engine, and a Group 31 for the generator.

Of course you can get by with a smaller battery much of the time. But if the day comes when you are out on the water and really need that 8D's cranking power, you'll be glad you have it.

For a house bank, it's a different story. We use L16's because we have the height to handle them. For smaller installations GC or T105's work great.

I just bought 2 grp 31 batteries this Friday from West Marine regularly $331.00 a pc but on sale for $255 ea and I had a 15% discount coupon, I used them to replace a GRP 8D

danderer said:

What type of posts are on GCs? Same as 8Ds or..?

Thinking about the wiring changes I'd need to make.

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Same as the threaded posts on Angus' uber-house bank. I now see that his batts have both post types.

angus99 said:

Yet another option. I went with US Battery 305 AGMs for the house wired in series parallel ala Al.







They are true deep cycle floor polisher batteries, an inch longer than GCs and the same width. Taller than CGs (about 11 inches) but not as tall as L16s. 312 AH per 6-volt pair and--at about 100 lbs each--I can still move them around when I need to (carefully). For the real estate they occupy, they provide a lot of capacity.



My start battery for both engines and genset is a Goup 31 AGM (under the socket set). I can switch to the house bank for backup starting power and a Balmar Duo Charge makes sure the start battery stays topped off.

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Nice looking install but I don't see where your actually have the bank connected to your boat? Where do you have your fuse installed?

I am going to have to look at replacing my sealed LA batteries that are used for my house bank and thruster bank at some point. They are the original Chinese made 8D batteries installed back in 2010.

I like not having to water the batteries but am not sure I want to invest in AGMs when the time comes. Not to mention man-handling the old batteries out and the ones in.

angus99 said:

Yet another option. I went with US Battery 305 AGMs for the house wired in series parallel ala Al.



They are true deep cycle floor polisher batteries, an inch longer than GCs and the same width. Taller than CGs (about 11 inches) but not as tall as L16s. 312 AH per 6-volt pair and--at about 100 lbs each--I can still move them around when I need to (carefully). For the real estate they occupy, they provide a lot of capacity.

My start battery for both engines and genset is a Goup 31 AGM (under the socket set). I can switch to the house bank for backup starting power and a Balmar Duo Charge makes sure the start battery stays topped off.

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Question--- Your bank is just beautiful! But do you have it fused and if not are you concerned? I clearly remember an experience on anchor running my genny with Freedom 2000 that blew up in my boat when I switched batteries while under charge.

I was lucky to switch off the flaming Freedom from the batteries before I had a real inferno. Since then, I have all my battery banks fused.

dhays said:

I like not having to water the batteries but am not sure I want to invest in AGMs when the time comes.

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Pick up a battery watering sysem. Quite a few varieties available, and make the job simple to top all cells in a multi battery bank. My 4 GC's were in such a tight spot I had to go with this. Works great.

https://www.amazon.com/Flow-Rite-RV2000-Pro-Fill-Battery-Kit/dp/B001FCAXT0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1490716924&sr=8-1&keywords=battery+watering+system

Heron said:

Pick up a battery watering sysem. Quite a few varieties available, and make the job simple to top all cells in a multi battery bank. My 4 GC's were in such a tight spot I had to go with this. Works great.

https://www.amazon.com/Flow-Rite-RV...16924&sr=8-1&keywords=battery+watering+system

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Yes, good idea. I went with the GC batteries in my sailboat and it worked great. Fortunately, it was very easy access to add water. My house and thruster batteries are in the aft lazarette. There is no way to easily access the top of them to check water. A system such as that could solve that problem.

foggysail said:

Question--- Your bank is just beautiful! But do you have it fused and if not are you concerned? I clearly remember an experience on anchor running my genny with Freedom 2000 that blew up in my boat when I switched batteries while under charge.

I was lucky to switch off the flaming Freedom from the batteries before I had a real inferno. Since then, I have all my battery banks fused.

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Sorry, I just came across your and Dave's good questions. Those were "under construction" shots with lots of temporary fitting. Sadly, I don't have any pix yet of the bank in its final state. This is a slightly newer one with hold-downs installed and still lots of mess.





And this shows the fusing (again, in progress as most of the fuse blocks are empty). In its final state, a short 4/0 positive cable connects the bank to the Blue Sea remote battery switch and then to the positive bus and fuses.


It was a very happy day when I put current on the redesigned system (which also includes a Charles ISOBoost transformer, the Magnum inverter charger pictured, new panel breakers etc, etc) and everything worked!

I have one 8D which almost never needs topping up and another(Yuasa Century) which needs regular topping up. Very different caps, the first has screw caps with ? recirculating compartment suggesting some design to it, the latter has simple rubber push on caps.

Great job Angus! An accomplishment to be proud of!!!

HopCar said:

My boat was set up with 2 x 4D from the builder. One was the start and one was the house. I added one group 31 to be the start and combined the 4Ds into a house bank. My engine is a Cummins 6BT5.6.

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I did similair, but I had 2 8-D's in each bank, one connected to Starter.
I added G31 to Start and made one bank of 4 8-D's for House.

Has anyone tried the Firefly Carbon Foam batteries?

foggysail said:

Great job Angus! An accomplishment to be proud of!!!

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Thanks!

And, doing my part to move us back on topic, my last 8D died over the winter. It was originally configured on my boat to start the genset only, which seemed like overkill. I've replaced it with a Group 31, which now has primary starting duty for all the engines. I test-started the Lehmans with the Group 31 successfully, but haven't ruled a second Group 31 in the start bank. I was not sorry to see the 8D go.

foggysail said:

Great job Angus! An accomplishment to be proud of!!!

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+1

That is a really nice install. I'm impressed.

Wxx3 said:

I did similair, but I had 2 8-D's in each bank, one connected to Starter.

I added G31 to Start and made one bank of 4 8-D's for House.



Has anyone tried the Firefly Carbon Foam batteries?

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Darren has on Moofish and started a thread on them.

Carbon Foam Batteries 1 Year Later

http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26233