Battery help in Ft Lauderdale

Lauderdale battery will replace them. They'll deliver and install.

Yes, Lauderdale Battery, they're also a Deka dealer.

They delivered & installed to Miami, two of the four 8 D's in my boat just prior to my ownership.

Guy across the street used to have a 38 Bertram and a guy he called, "gorilla," who when changing his 8 D's saw the guy carrying TWO of them from truck to dock.

Other neighbor replaced his 8 D's 2 for 1 with ones half the physical size & weight that fit in same boxes. Thought he may have referred to them as Group 31's but I may be wrong on that but plan to check when the time rolls around. Each bank are on the outside of the engines with the only path being across the front of each, aft along the path down the center and then up into the cockpit. Needs a mini gorilla (or two) as space is tight and even with floor hatch removal, no clearance to lift out that way. Lauderdale Battery did them at least once so will call them.

Our previous boat had two main banks, each starting an engine and approx half of the house. Our AGMs -- 3x G31s each -- lasted at least 11 and 12 seasons. Former replaced while still decent (with 4x GC2s for more capacity to service a new inverter), latter still good when we sold the boat. Odyssey Extremes. Boatloads of cranking amps. $$$$

-Chris

Used to get 2 years from the cheap 8 D's at Sam's Club. I think they had Deca stickers on them. When they jumped from 89.00 to 165. switched to Interstate. Those lasted 3 years including the two group 31's in the smaller boat. Buddy was setting up the new to him cruiser type boat with 3208's before shipping to her new home in St. Thomas and replaced all the 8 D's with Rolls and after 8 years he said one bank appeared to be getting weak. My previous Bertram had Surrette's I replaced at 8 years. The amazing thing was the OEM Surrette generator battery under the aft deck took a salt water bath on trip south from the NE. Terminal(s) had burnt marks and it was stone dead however it took a charge and lasted another couple years.

My personal experience with AGM 8D batteries has been the opposite of Pascals. I replaced the Start, House and Inverter 8Ds after 7 yrs because I knew they coming to their end. All were Lifeline AGM 8D. I still have two of them handling thrusters and are at the 8 yr mark. Clearly they don't see much use. I'll most likely swap them out at the end of boating season.

From their website:
Established in 1935, Surrette Battery Company Ltd. is proud to be one of North America’s leading lead-acid battery producers and Canada’s only remaining independent battery manufacturer. Since 1959, the company has been located in Springhill, Nova Scotia, where we produce a wide range of Rolls-branded premium deep cycle batteries for use in Renewable Energy, Marine, Motive Power and Railroad applications