What brand of TM battery...

[Paul Welc]

I know this will probably start a firestorm, but who makes the best sealed TM battery? I have an Interstate that is about 32 months old (out of warranty) and is dead. I have a PT-175 so checking fluid levels is a pain (need to pull out the cranking battery then unhook and slide back trolling battery to check fluids). I think I want a sealed battery but do not want to sacrifice to much in duration as my main lake is trolling motor only, any suggestions. The dead Interstate, I checked and never had to put much distilled water in (lead-acid)but don't feel it held up very well considering I kept it charged and maintained, probably used it 75 - 80 times total, I usually fish about 3-4 times a month. I searched some of the old post and it seemed Trojan was mentioned do they have a good sealed deep cycle battery? Who sells Trojan?

 

[Chris F.]

Do a search for the trojan web site. It has a dealer locater tab on it. I was going to check in to them but the nearest dealer was 30 miles away. Chris F.

 

[Paul Welc]

Chris, I did that and it only shows Gander Mountain as a dealer within 50 miles. I will check their price. I'm thinking Trojan

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

I have had good luck with the AC Delco's if you can find them. I have one as my cranking battery. For my 2 trollers, I use Wal-Mart's Marine Maxx but my batts are easy to get to. I was disappointed, they lowered the reserve capicity from 210 to 185 and I can feel the difference. Sealed are expensive no matter who you buy. I had terrible performance from Interstates when I had them in my boat.



TOXIC

 

[Bill Hamilton]

I had four (4) Interstates (3 trollers and 1 starting battery) in my 02 896 and just replaced them all this year. Won two Delco Trollers (Series 27's) so just added a third I bought directly from one of the sponsors from my TX (FOM). I bought a starting battery from WalMart and it works fine. Hope I get as much use out of the new ones as I did from the Interstates. I have heard nightmare stories about Interstate Marine batteries but I couldn't complain after 6 years. I would have stayed with them except I won the two Delco's at a TX raffle.



You can buy the Trojan AGMs at Costco who recently starting selling them. Think they run around $150.

 

[Jim in VA]

Read (and heard) good things about the Optima batteries. Pricey, though. Never been a fan of the Interstate batteries for trolling application. Mine crapped out after only two years. The starting battery, on the other hand, was still going strong when I sold my PT175.

 

[Major Mark]

same here as Jim...Interstate trollers lasted only 2 years, but cranker is going strong. Switched this month to Exide trollers because I was out of town on vacation & ordered Optimas from Auto Zone, had to pay up front before ordering & pay overnight shipping, but they couldn't deliver as promised.

 

[mike chip]

go with the agm batteries.

mike c

 

[David Butler]

you can not do better than Trojan

 

[Jim B]

Ill give you my .02. I would go with trojan SCS series batteries. They will give you the time on the water you are looking for and they will last unlike the interstates did. Yuo will have to maintain them but its no big deal to check and water then every month or so. I dont like sealed batteries because there it no way to replace the water lost that will eventually burn off during charging. What ends up happening is the battery looses capacity over time. Im very hard on trolling motor batteries just because of the way i fish and Trojan is the only one i have tried that has stood up and i have tried a bunch of different batteries.



Personally i have never had good luck with interstates either( ive never had a set last more then 6 months)and when i took delivery of my new Z7 this year i told the dealer to keep the batteries and i would provide my own. I put a new set of SCS trojans in and im sure like my last set ill get 5-6 years out of them easily.

 

[Andrew Zuber]

Optima....

There is no substitute!



az

 

[TritonGlenn]

Trojan SCS series is what I run also - the SCS225's. They are the best, bar none, battery that I have ever tried, and I've tried just about everything on the market. I'm not going to bad mouth any other company, but do a google search on a couple of the ones mentioned above, and then go to the hits from fishing sites and see what they say about some of them. I think you will find that there is a "substitute" for at least "one" of the above mentioned , and that substitute is a real marine battery - the Trojan SCS series. SCS = Superior Cycling Series. OK... so I kinda bashed one of them in a round-about way. Sorry! Couldn't help myself! :lol:



Oh... by the way - Golf Courses use the Trojan brand quite often, so if you don't have a dealer in your area, but have a golf course, call Trojan to arrange a shipment of them to your local golf course, and then just drive up there and meet the driver. They delivered my very first set to my front door, as the golf course was right up the street from my house, and another time they met me and a friend I talked into buying them in the parking lot outside the front gate of the Navy base. They have great customer service, and a LONG history of providing the best batteries available on the market.



If it ain't maroon colored, it doesn't go in my battery compartment - Trojan. THE marine battery.



All the best,

Glenn

 

[Paul Welc]

Thanks, I'm still trying to find a Trojan dealer nearby. Called Gander Mt and they told me they stopped selling them as they were getting hard to get and freight was killing them. I asked where the nearest dealer was and he thought it was in St Loius. I can't believe I live the the middle of IL and have to drive 3 hours to get a Trojan battery!

 

[Jim B]

Paul do a dealer search on Trojans site. I just did one on Illinois and there are 11 in your state. Im not sure whats close to you but they are there.. Check this link and punch in your Zip code.




http://dev.trojanbattery.org/tools/dealers.aspx?zip=enter+5+digit+zip&x=56&y=14

 

[Paul Welc]

Thanks Jim, I checked and the nearest store is about 2 hours away (the Gnd Mt 5 minutes from my house stop selling Trojan brand).

 

[Larry Harp]

Paul, this is why I use Wal-Mart Everstarts. They're available in 8 zillion Wallyworlds in every burg and hamlet in the nation. Granted they're not as good a battery as a Trojan but you can buy at least two of them (maybe three) for the price of one Trojan. I haven't had to replace the stock Interstates on my '06 591 yet but I'm starting to get the signs of them getting weak. They'll probably get me through the rest of the year and then I'll probably go slummin' and get the Everstarts. I know one thing I'm not going to lay out $400 to $500 for a couple of batteries just for fun fishing.

 

[Paul Welc]

Thanks SoonerFan I'm going shopping at Wal-Mart tonight and will check out their battery. It is between that and one from Batteries Plus that is their brand, but made by Exide.

 

[Jim B]

Harpo,

I think you may be a little confused on how much a SCS trojan costs. I paid ~150 each after tax for the scs 225's that are in my boat. An equivilent group 29 everstart is ~100 a pop where i live. So in the end i could buy 3 everstarts for the price of two trojans.



for my money id rather spend a little more, get more life out of them, better on water performance and not have to deal with failures. I have had waaaay too many trips wrecked by everstart batteries. whats cheaper in the end? Spend a little less on batteries or have a $800 tournament weekend wrecked because your batteries die on day 1 and relacements cant be found anywhere(had happened ot me more then once since in the north east they dont stock many marine batteries at walmart)?





Paul do youself a favor and but the one made by exide. I think you would be better off long term. Personally i will never ever run another johnson controls built attery in my boat, ive had too many problems with them.

 

[Larry Harp]

Jim, from what I can tell from my online research is you got a heckofa deal. The link below is the cheapest I found at $190 and several other online stores I googled were anywhere from $235 to $340! The only place locally that I know of that sold Trojan was Academy and they no longer carry them. They've gone strictly Stowaway. I'm sure if I looked hard enough I could find someone possibly a boat dealer that carried Trojan. On the other hand I called Wal-Mart and they have the big yellow Everstart Marine Maxx in stock for $79.88. One interesting thing... in my reasearch I learned that Everstart is made by Exide. Actually, I thought that Exide was made by Johnson Controls... actually I though that Johnson Controls built just about everything.



On my PT-185 I replaced the original Interstate when it was less than two years old. It really wasn't dead I just wanted a bigger battery. I installed the biggest Marine Maxx they had. It was so big that it wouldn't fit in the original battery tray so I modified it going north/south instead of east/west... if you know what I mean. I got somewhere in the neighborhood of three years out of that battery. Once again it wasn't dead it was just starting to go slower. The replacement was in the boat when I traded. I hear all the horror stories about Interstate and Everstart batteries but frankly I've never experienced them. I don't do anything remarkable... just check the water occasionally and hook up the charger as soon as I get home from the lake. I've also had good luck with an Everstart battery in my old Jeep. I don't remember for sure but I'm guessing that battery had 140 or 150k miles on it with never one problem. I have never had a catastrophic failure like you mention. They always just start getting weaker and weaker and I replace them before they fail. For me that has been around three years.



I don't mean to get into a whole big thing on this, the only point I was trying to make is that I agree, Trojan is a much better battery than an Everstart but is it 2 or 3 times better? Let's say Paul can find the battery for $150 (but I'm betting more) but he has to drive two hours to get it and spends $20 worth of gas not to mention his time. The Trojan battery will last, I guessing 5 or 6 years.... or he can go to the Wal-Mart that I'm betting is within a mile or two of his house and buy one for $79.88 and have a warranty outlet just about anywhere he goes. That battery will last two or three years and then he can still buy another and still be money and time ahead.



P.S. Let me just add one more thing... If I were fishing big tournements on big water I'd buy the Trojans too. I just don't see the value for the weekend recreational fishing that I do.





BTW, did you get my e-mail about the virus software on OS X ?
http://ebatteriestogo.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=EBTG&Product_Code=CBSCS225

 

[Jim B]

Harpo, I did get your email. I still dont buy it, ive cleaned up viruses first hand on OS X. Yes Macs dont get as many viruses or i guess you could say arent as "prone" to them as Windows but they do exist and im sure will be increasing in numbers as Mac becomes more popular as a platform. Ive worked in Information Technology too long to believe that anything is virus/malware proof, its part of my job to be skeptical i guess. I have nothing against Macs, actually if my IBM T43(best laptop i have ever owned)ever goes belly up or becomes way outdated its replacement will be a 17" Macbook Pro.



The Z7 is running fantastic, thanks for asking. I love that 175 Xs Opti , the thing just sips gas compared to my XR6 and is is so strong. The performance is incredible. I burned like maybe 15 gallons of gas on three trips to Winnisquam in NH, my old boat would have burned 45 easy, maybe more. The difference in fuel consumption is just amazing. Im pretty pleased with the whole package.





On the battery note, i dont think i got a "deal" on mine i paid normal price at the same place i bought my last set 6 years ago(which were still good when i got rid of the boat). Maybe my local shop isnt marking them up as much, im not sure. All i know is i handed him $300 and i got two brand new scs 225's. Last time i checked Johnson controls still made the everstart, that may have changed im not sure but i have had problems with every johnson controls battery i have ever used in a boat. Its not for lack of maint for sure i since im super anal about it. I dont think they are build to withstand abuse in rough water. I have never had an everstart, interstatse, die hard etc last me a season ever. every time i have had shorted plates and they arent old at all. To me its worth spending even tripple for the Trojans. Im not a hard core tournament fisherman anymore at all, im mainly a weekend guy with liek 5-6 T's mixed in a year but i dont like having trips runied by battery problems. I have to drive a good way to get to the waters i like to fish and a lot of times i make a weekend out of it. So to spend money on fuel to drive to lets say champlain( a 5 hour drive) and rent a room, buy food and all that stuff only to have the batteries die and no replacements really bothers me because its a trip wrecked. I have had that exact scenario happen more then once with weeklong trips screwed up by it. I really value my time on the water and when i do get the chance to fish up north i dont want to run into problems. It just costs too much to make these trips, if it wasa lake 10 min down the street it would be different. Thats the reason i spent got the trojans and i have had not one battery problem or wrecked trip since. I have been doing this fishing thing for as long time and over the years i have determined there are a few things i will never ever own again, one is any battery by johnson controls, the others are evinrude motors, motorguide trolling motors, and quantum reels ive just had too many problems with all of the above things.



Sorry for making you read a novel here but put the info out there i guess.

 

[Larry Harp]

I know what you mean about having faith in certain brands. I am that way about Minn Kota, Shimano, P-Line, and Power Pro...oh yeah, I almost forgot Apple/Mac. Every time I deviate from them I regret it. So far I haven't had a reason to hate Everstart. Funny thing; when this discussion came up on another forum it seemed like more guys had favorable impressions with Everstarts.