8D Battery Replacement

[Cold Shot]

Good morning guys,

I just bought a 38’ Luhrs with twin 3126 Cat engines. The boat came with two 8D batteries and one regular car battery for the generator. See pics of the AC panel and charger. I’m looking to replace the batteries and charger. Looking for recommendations on a reliable charger for this boat. Apparently this charger lasted 20 years.

Thanks,

Will

 

[DDW]

Plenty of good choices in chargers, the premium units are probably Mastervolt and Victron, but others have caught up. I'd lose the 8D batteries and replace with something else: 6C or L16 perhaps. 8D are just too hard to deal with.

 

[mvweebles]

For pure charger, I like Newmar. Bulk of their business is industrial applications such as communications' towers, oil field remote sites, etc. And they are US designed and manufactured. If you are looking at a charger/inverter combination, I like Magnum - very popular in the off-grid solar set, and their controls are still fairly simple (read: no IP Addresses required to operate).

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

Welcome to TF Will.

I agree with the above. I have 2 xantrax 40 amp chargers for my house batteries.

Good luck in your quest.

 

[Comodave]

I like Promariner chargers. Have 2 in our current boat and had one in the last boat. Very reliable and good support from Promariner.

 

[Pete Meisinger]

Any of the modern marine chargers will do the job and can be purchased for a couple hundred dollars. You will find that they are WAY smaller in footprint than the older ones and way smarter.

On the other hand the 8Ds are just too heavy and bulky to deal with on a boat and my past experience is that they don't last as long as the typical deep cycle battery. Toss in a couple high quality starting batteries and away you go!

pete

 

[syjos]

You can buy an inverter/charger for a little more money than a battery charger.

I do not recommend the Magnum inverter/charger. Their MS2812 is known to experience meltdowns.

Google "Magnum inverter fire". Lots of Magnum inverter fires in RV's.

Ours experienced a meltdown and filled the boat with burning plastic smoke and fumes. The fire was contained in the inverters housing but melted surrounding equipment and covered the entire boat in soot. Magnum replaced the inverter but refused to cover consequential damages until I threatened to report the fire and file a claim with Boat US, my insurance company. I was reimbursed for damaged equipment replacement and the labor for cleanup.

I was a Magnum dealer at the time. I severed my relationship with them and sold Victron instead.

 

[boatpoker]

Pro Mariner or Sterling (same thing, different badge).

In corrosion surveys I have found it is not unusual for Xantrex units to leak AC into the DC side

 

[tiltrider1]

Since we don’t know how you use your boat or what your power requirements are any of the 10 different answers could be right. If you are just a day user, a Xantrex 20A charger might be all you need for $125. On the other hand, maybe you have a lot of young women visiting you at the dock each weekend, each wanting to run multiple blow dryers pushing your 30A A/C. Breaker past it’s limit. In this case I would recommend Hybrid Inverter/Charger at about $2,500.