Well, they are in.  Now to get out there and try them.  I went back to the shop that I bought them and had them install them and hook everything up right. 

I told him that this had better work as I alredy had half of the club POOH POOHING me and he didn't want to be hearing the squeek of tires sneaking up on him in a dark alley.  LOL

Rich

Way to call the weather Rob.  Sorry that I didn't believe you last night.  Got up this morning and kicked my butt for not going.  Oh well, I hope you guys that did go kicked some bass.

Give us a report.

I've heard great things about the Trojans also, on other boards.  I think they sell them at GI Joes also !

Rich,

I just had to replace my cranking battery in my boat. I got the biggest Trojan I could get. I think it was a S1100 or something. It had around 850 cold cranking amps. Mr.Higbee explained the importance of the CCA to me. If your motor is direct injection it takes more to crank it over. I never heard him say anything about a reserve or anything like that. I know that I can run all my pumps, fishfinders, lights and still crank over the big motor. You will fry a deep cycle battery if you try to use it for a starter. They are designed to slowly have the power drained out of them. They are not designed to jolt up a ton of amps at once. It will work for awhile, but the plates will go bad and the battery will not hold any charge. I ony paid $90 for my starting battery. I would highly reccomend the Trojans.

After rereading your post I think you are using the golf batteries for your trolling motor? I also have Trojans in my boat. I got them also from Anglers. They give you 10 percent off if you tell them you are with Western. I think both my batteries cost me $190. 74# minnkota.....80% power....mouth of the Yakima......never took my foot off the button for two hours......Still had plenty of juice.  Seriously check into the Trojans. I am really impressed with mine. I wish I would have replaced all mine sooner. I promise you will never have to turn up your motor half way thru the day.

Mike

Larry,  the guy that I talked to was at a battery shop.  Apparentley  the 12 volts have like 120 reserve minutes.  So If you hook 2 in parallel you get 240 reserve minutes but lose about 20% so you end up with about 200 reserve minutes.

With the cart batteries, 6 volts each, hooked in series you get over 400 reserve minutes.  He was saying that some of the guys that do this are talking about fishing for a couple days without charging them.

Well we will see.  It cost me  $160 for the 2 batteries.  Would have been about $280 for the Optimas.  But I won't hook them up right away since I am planning to go to the fish-in iffin' it don't look too bad.  Will probably try them out next week or so.

He did say that if money was no real object then you would probably go with the Optima's.  He also said the cart batteries would last longer then the Optima's.

Rich

I would stick to Marine Grade Rich plus the G.I.Joes guy probable worked in the Ski Stuff area just a week ago!

I no wat chu meen, Lary.

Just had an interesting talk with a battery guy.  His recommendation was to use 2- 6 volt golf cart batteries hooked in series for 12 volts.  He said they would have more reserve capacity then 2- 12 volt batteries hooked parallel.  Also, the cart batteries have a longer life.

The price for the 2 batteries would be about $80/each.  Only drawback would be they are about 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 inches higher.  Also, these batteries are not "maintenance free".

Hhhmmm

Rich

Never used these Rich....as for why not deep cycle for cranking....I do not believe the deep cycles have the "Cranking" amps of the cranking batteries....that is why your deep cycle goes down fast when you have to jump start your cranker........


knot uh teknition tho!

Thanks Stu.  I think I will pick up a couple of those.  I have been wanting to get new ones for the boat and that looks like a good price for them.

I will be going to GI Joes after work today.  If anyone has any comments (regarding the batteries, Larry) please post them.  I have heard that these are pretty good. 

BTW,  what would be the problem with using a "deep cycle" battery for a starter battery?

Rich

Rich,

The deep cycle blue tops (regular size, not the troll fury double pack thing) were $159.99 - 20% ($32.00)= $127.99.

The starter-only blue tops were $139.99 - $28 = $111.99

Those are the only prices I looked at. 

Stu

Hhhmmm...how much does that make the blue tops?

Rich

For you folks who are interested in buying Optima SPIRALCELL® batteries, GI Joes has 20% off of all of their Optima blue, red and yellow top batteries until Saturday.

I haven't seen them on sale much, especially at 20% off across the board, so you might want to check it out. (They told me thay are issuing rain checks if they are out of stock.)

Optima's site for info on these batteries at: http://www.optimabatteries.com

Stu