Need help with logistics

[Stu Jackson]

In an (this) "emergency," could you not find a 12V battery that would fit in the space, and store your one good 6V until you got to a source? Of course, it's up to you whether the Delta amp hours in your bank is meaningful to YOU. Either way, you seem to have to be lugging one good 6V with you.

Good luck, sorry to hear about your issue.

[DMCantor]

I only wish this were true. We have paid LOTS of customs tariffs, even as "ship in transit"

[mitiempo]

Originally Posted by Sea Life

I do have SOC meters, the issue is with multiple charging sources and multiple using sources, one tally is impossible. Mostly due to the limited shunt sizes. For instance hoist for boat crane, windlass, not on shunts......

This strikes me as strange. 500 amp shunts are common on battery monitors and I doubt you use more current than that. If desired 1000 amp shunts are available.

Sorry for your issue. I would just exist with a smaller bank until an affordable replacement is available.

[blueazimuth]

6v golf cart batteries are manufactured in Trinidad, and have been for some time.
Battery Depot 868-622-2288
9 Long Circular Rd, Port of Spain

No shipping, no import tax, no waiting and an easy sail from Grenada.

Lange Trinidad Ltd is another battery source in Trinidad: didnt see anything about golf carts on their site, nor phone number.are

[Moontide]

Trinidad honors the Yacht in Transit duty exemption. I'm pretty sure all or most of the French islands let you bring in duty free also.

Bill

[blueazimuth]

Trinidad does honour Yacht-in-Transit but at the discretion of the customs officer, especially the ones at Chagaramus: their attitude and interpretation of TT Customs Regulations varies between pleasant yet professional officers and rude, officious and threatening ones.
The latter claim that all yacht "spares" are duty liable "unless they make the yacht go" ie a propeller to replace a damaged one is duty free. A spare propeller is not.
Customs officers know that cruising yachts carry spares - to replace an item that is damaged, breaks or wears out. The word "spare" under Yacht-in-transit is a red flag to some officers while the phrase "replacement part" is acceptable, even though that part may actually be a spare.

[Thumbs Up]

The same thing happened to me this year, two or three year old trojan L16 6volt but my bank was only the two batteries and we could not find a match for the other one in Cancun so we ended up trading in the other good one for a core charge on LTH golf cart batteries. (which ended up costing half as much as the trojans in Honduras). Too bad I couldn't have sold you the other good one. But we are dissappointed in trojan and won't be buying them anymore. Your solution is simple: you have six batteries and you can make a perfectly good battery bank out of four of them and have one for a spare. Those batteries are around 200 ah each (6v), should give you around 200ah of usable storage (only depleting them 50%), I think that if you just disconnect the bad one then your problem will be solved for now. Unless you are 24 you didn't say but can still make it work with 4.

[Thumbs Up]

forgot to mention that L16 batteries are for made for floor buffers

[mitiempo]

Originally Posted by Thumbs Up

Those batteries are around 200 ah each (6v), should give you around 200ah of usable storage (only depleting them 50%), I think that if you just disconnect the bad one then your problem will be solved for now. Unless you are 24 you didn't say but can still make it work with 4.

Trojan L-16 are between 370 and 420 AH depending on model.

[SecondBase]

Wasn't my intention to convert but I moved from Trojans to Duracells. Quite good so far but it is early. Anyone else used the wet Duracells?

[john61ct]

Yes, they are the most frequently recommended, made by East Penn and available at Sam's Club and Batteries+

Cheapest good quality true deep cycle, likely a step below Trojans, Crown, Superior, US Battery between those and Rolls / Surrette at the top.

Obviously buying what's easily found where you cruise may be wiser than buying based only on quality.

Or buy a bigger bank than what you need, configured at least some parallel for redundancy.

[Thumbs Up]

Oh yeah, 420 amp hours are what mine were. I had 200 "usable amp hours" with 4 at 12 volts he will still have over 400 amp hours to play with without going below 50% so still no emergency

[Dockhead]

You are right that this condition is usually caused by a short. You can't fix it.

Have you considered just leaving the whole pair out of action until you can source an identical replacement? And charging more often? Do you have a generator?

Edit: I see Thumbs Up has already recommended this.

[Thumbs Up]

There would be an issue with one new battery and five old ones. The failure mode on my Trojan L16 was identical, it heated up, had low specific gravity and as the issue progressed had a high rate of self discharge. Very disappointed in Trojan. Never abused these batteries. Expected them to last many years. And had to give up the good one when I switched to golf cart batteries. I would stick to the 4 battery bank with one as a spare and if you need extra capacity maybe one or two 12 volt group 27 size connected to one of your charging source and used for your windlass and maybe something else. I would never again use two 6volt batteries as a bank because if one goes then you are screwed. But why would just one go? Ask Trojan. I think that the word is DEFECTIVE

[hellosailor]

"Ask Trojan. I think that the word is DEFECTIVE"

It never hurts to ask a merchant about out of warranty accommodations for defects. I've had a number of folks earn my faithful business because they said "That isn't right, we're sending you a new one" even when an item was almost a year out of warranty. Battery makers, though...I've never heard of them really stepping up that way. Any of them. There's just too much abuse in the customer end of things.

Manufacturers who make and sell goods under different labels and contractors (like "WalMart" or "Costco" batteries, made by different vendors in different parts of the US as well) usually know how often their goods will fail, and they offer the goods with varying warranties at varying prices. So they'll usually hold a hard line on those as well, leaving the merchant to play hero, or not.

Still, it never hurts to ASK the maker, pointing out the difficulties of the situation, shipping, etcetera. Sometimes, they do surprise you.