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Old 10-22-2016, 10:54 PM   #1
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I need some battery wisdom

I bought a 2007 Alfa coach. It came stock with 6 6volt house bat. But the original owner replaced them with 4 12volt Lifeline GPL-8DL amp hour capacity@20 hour rate 255amp batteries. He had a solor pan on top but it was removed when I got it. Any battery guys that could tell me what I got for storage ect. These things are huge and spendy.
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Old 10-22-2016, 11:29 PM   #2
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You got very nice batteries there- keep them. Four batteries in parallel at 255AHr you have 1,020 Ahr total. You never want to use more than about half of that total without possibly damaging the batteries. These are AGM Mil Spec batteries, new they cost something around $2,400 for the set of four. Many of us could only dream of that kind of power capacity. You should be able to run "most" anything except your AC units.

I would suggest you get a good solar system installed to help keep these bats charged up. Read up on the various solar related blogs before buying a solar system Many people spend a lots of cash on solar and wonder why it does not work. Frequently, solar system get designed badly and installed even worse. There are several threads on IRV2 related to matching various electrical system components to work well together. A battery set like this needs a good size converter or inverter/converter. to get charged right. Its worth your time to read them.
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Old 10-23-2016, 05:18 AM   #3
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Stick with the 12v, but just get regular flooded cell batts. Napa has a very good prices on 8d batts. I have used them for years. The deep cycle version is https://www.napaonline.com/napa/en/p/NBP8276/


But these are the ones that I use and like the best. Trick is to not let them get below 55% discharge. https://www.napaonline.com/napa/en/p/NBD7271/


I have one of these 8d and 2 grp 24's in my moho. 180 watt solar panels, no gen set. Full timed for 6 years with no problems.


Napa will give you a discount if you have an account there or military or AAA. You have to check with your local store.
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Old 10-23-2016, 05:46 AM   #4
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I need some battery wisdome

I agree. lifeLine batteries are top of the line. If they are in good condition they will serve you well. Make sure your charger is set to voltages that LifeLine recommends in order to keep them healthy.

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Old 10-23-2016, 08:07 AM   #5
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Do you need to replace them already, or are you just asking? As rarebear says, those are really excellent batteries, though very pricey. Treat them well and they should have a lifetime of 8-12 years, so I would think you do not need batteries now or the near future. Maybe not as long as you own the coach! And especially if you don't camp off-grid (no shorepower) often or for lengthy periods.

I have four 8+ year old Trojan AGMs in the Group 31 size and they are still usable, though their amp-hour capacity has deteriorated somewhat. I've probably lost about 25-30% of the original capacity.
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Old 10-23-2016, 08:42 AM   #6
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FWIW - you are getting good advice about properly maintaining what you have and staying with them unless there is a problem. I would think whoever put in the setup did it right but it's worth going over it so you know that and have a sense of how the system looks and feels to you. If it is toast for some reason then come back and we can give you some lower cost alternatives if that is what you want. You need to list what you have for the charging side if you want that.
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Old 10-23-2016, 10:24 AM   #7
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I don't know if this will help with your specific installation but there is a lot of good information on this web site. Of particular interest is the section on How to Prolong Battery Life.

Battery Information Table of Contents, Basic to Advanced
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Old 10-23-2016, 07:30 PM   #8
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Thanks for all the info. My batteries are working great and dated 2013. I am just ignorant on what a amp hour is and what it is worth, so I am trying to learn. I assume the original owner had the solor hooked up for trips to Arizona boondocking. I call him for info and he told me he had problems with it and pulled the panals. He left the brackets on the roof. So far I stay at camp grounds but who knows. I leave it pluged in at home all the time with out using disconnects. Good or bad ?
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Old 10-23-2016, 08:20 PM   #9
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If you have a proper 3 stage charging system it is generally best to leave the RV plugged in all the time. Many people like the Progressive Dynamics products. In your case I'd recommend the PD 9280.I believe there are other good brands, but I don't know them. Some charging systems need to treat AGM batteries differently from flooded cell units. But, I think I read somewhere for the batteries you have they should be charged the same, check this out first!

An excellent series of articles about solar can be found here, RV Electrical

I'd recommend you read this stuff at least twice to get a good feel what what he's saying. There's a lots of great material there. However, if you stay in campgrounds solar may not be worth the investment. It all depends on your life style.
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Old 10-23-2016, 08:36 PM   #10
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POST #3 by "lonfu" is about the worst advice I've ever seen on
this forum. Lifeline AGM's are flat out the best batteries
money can buy........
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Old 10-24-2016, 07:00 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by macandphyl View Post
POST #3 by "lonfu" is about the worst advice I've ever seen on
this forum. Lifeline AGM's are flat out the best batteries
money can buy........
That was exactly my point! best money can buy. It is not bad advice. Until prices come down on Lifeline Batts the amount per amp hour for flooded cells is still the best best around. I'm guessing you've only used 6 volt batts, they are a waste of money as far as I'm concerned, but in may rv's they are the only choice that will fit in the bat compartment.

Why invest $ 3 thousand when a thousand will do the trick. Doesn't make sense to put high dollar bats in an old coach that he will not get his money back on. Especially if it his first moho which he will change out in a few years.


good news is that he still has a couple of years left on his current bat warranty.
Lifeline
Marine & RV application
12 Free Replacement Months
60 Pro-rate Months


In my opinion he should have plenty of amp hours to run his coach with what he has, and then some.
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Old 10-24-2016, 07:46 AM   #12
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Op asked about amp hours and that stupid simple question is usually the thing that goes horribly wrong.

We state this from many years of experience where company engineers would design the battery plant and our teams would get blamed when they did not meet expected performance.

We learned how to engineer them and corrected the problem...Most folks assume if label states 200 ah then they can run say 200 amps for 1 hour but op did state label stated at 20 her rate and this is the fine print the engineers overlook.

Batteries have internal resistance and a bunch or other factors that effect how they work.

If the label states say 100 ah @10 he rate then one can place a 10 amp load on the battery and it will maintain charge level for 10 hours.

The end point voltage also is critical as some cheat by using a lower end point voltage to use a deeper discharge level to get more juice from a battery to claim more capacity.


The short of it is the amp hors of a battery is X amount of amps times y amount of time but unlike a glass of water that holds a consistent amount of water the lead acid battery will have less usable capacity if the load is greater.

Having a labeled 1000 plus ah capacity is likely not going to have any concerns for load impacting capacity but if an all electric coach it could have some loads that may.

ALWAYS use apples to apples comparisons by reviewing the data sheet for each battery.

Use the same end point voltage and same load to determine which meets your needs.

The op has top notch batteries that SHOULD have a 10 to 20 year design life but that depends on both cycle count and depth of discharge.

The op should take a photo of the battery label and date codes.

They also need to locate any and all converters or chargers and take photos of the nomenclature plates.

They then contact lifeline to confirm actual date of manufacturer and get a copy of the data sheets as well as asking for assistance in setting the converters and chargers properly.

OP should also search the forum for battery charging or maintenance to review about a weeks worth of reading as well.
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Old 10-24-2016, 07:48 AM   #13
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FWIW, I replaced my 6 volt flooded batteries with six 300 amp Lifeline batteries about 10 months ago. Instead of checking the water and cleaning them every couple months, I roll them out once every three months to see the terminals are just as clean as when I installed them. Then roll them back in. I paid under $1600 delivered to my door for the set and expect them to last me 8+ years. Under $200/year for more amps and no maintenance is a bargain.
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Old 10-24-2016, 10:58 AM   #14
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Some more info in this link.
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