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Very satisfied Lifeline new customer report

Yahoo Message Number: 73851
Well, risking that I might start another round of message wars, I want to thank Tom Chilcote of Trans-Specialists and Lifeline Batteries of Azusa for making the recent purchase of two 8D house batteries quick and painless. Let me give a little detail on what happened: I had two Centennial 8Ds that we purchased new after buying our used '92 Concept coming up on four years ago. While we aren't full-timers--yet, we have been able to fit about 26K in the 3 1/2 years we've had it so far. The vast majority of the time had been on the Centennials. Realize that, for me, 1.) I'm not a "pool guy" [Definition of "pool guy": someone who lives to balance the pool for pH, hardness, solids, etc. Kin to the "yard guy": someone who has the knowledge of grubs, weed control, and always has that immaculate yard no matter what the season.
I'm not into tweaking pH, hardness, etc., and I really didn't care for the lead-acid batteries (i.e., constant monitoring and filling, how many ruined sets of shirts, shorts and pants, etc.) Given my baggage, the Centennials didn't seem to last given how frequently we RV. I don't have a 30A or 50A drop at the house; so, if we didn't go RVing in about 3 weeks, I pulled the RV out and ran the generator for an hour or two while I detailed it or tweaked with it. Maybe I should have disconnected them and power charged them or something, but chalk that up to probably ignorance or the "not-a-pool/yard/lead-acid battery" mentality. In any case since we really love our CC Concept and RVing, I figured I was doomed to have to continue to trash my clothes, get shorter than expected life out of my batteries, and never seem to be able to sustain battery usage more than about 12 hours of refrigerator and Webasto recirculating pump usage in the cold months.
Thanks heavens for the CC Forum and the discussions on different options for batteries (both chassis and house)! I've been lurking reading up on the Lifeline 8Ds and last month finally called Tom at Trans-Specialists. We exchanged information, and he informed me that I could do a pickup at the Lifeline headquarters in Azusa, CA. The biggest challenge for me was the cost, but, after researching them, I felt they would be worth it. The last few trips have been to full service RV parks; so, dry camping and batteries weren't an issue, but we've got possibly four trips, one extended, where dry camping was going to happen. Life got in the way, I never ordered them, and just prior to us leaving for the most recent trip from Rosamond, CA to San Francisco to Sequoia NP and home, the house batteries couldn't sustain charge even overnight to keep the refrig lit. So, the morning of our departure to San Francisco, I called Tom and asked him if there was anyway I could drive to Lifeline, pick up a set of 8Ds and be on my way to San Francisco? While he said they normally don't have spare sets just laying around, but that it just takes a day or so for him to order it from their factory, which is just a few miles down the road. He said he could call them and see what they could do. Moments later he called back and said they'd have a set waiting for pickup. He also mentioned that they normally just have folks pick them up and have another mx shop install. In any case, I was in a pinch and needed to get on the road. Tom gave me the name and phone number for his contact asking me to check in later to let him know how things went. I called the Lifeline contact enroute when I was about 30 minutes outs and described my situation. He said they could help swap the batteries out with the one exception that they could not touch the terminals. I told him no problem that i would be happy to disconnect and reconnect them if they would be kind enough to help me transload them. While their loading area was busy with truckers loading and leaving, there was sufficient room to pull in our RV and toad. We had to disconnect and reconnect the toad to allow us to turn around, but that only took about 10 minutes. As soon as I had the Concept parked and the FEDEX truck left, one of their workers brought the two 8Ds out to the RV. As soon as I had them disconnected, he took the two old batteries for recycle and loaded the new Lifeline 8Ds. I hooked them up and they lost less that .2V over a night's use when we were dry camping at Sequoia. At Sequoia we were very conservative with our battery usage since we didn't know how much better the Lifelines would be vs our previous, pretty negative lead-acid battery experience. We're going to try some tests to see if we can use the inverter and watch a movie with our projector, which is often our evening entertainment. While the jury will be reporting again in the future as we get the chance to stretch our experience and knowledge about the Lifeline batteries, we no longer dread having to dry-camp or have to rely on house batteries. Bottom line was that Tom is a very good resource to help other CC owners to provide information and and alternative to lead acid batteries. The folks at Lifeline are a family-owned and operated business. I found out why they name was familiar to me before. Their family got started making Concorde aviation batteries in the '40s I believe. As a pilot, the best batteries out there are the highly-touted Concorde batteries, which they make as well. They've received many accolades and praise within that circle. The folks at Lifeline provided superb customer service! All they owed me was to sell me two batteries, but they were a cut above, helping me swap them out and taking my old lead-acid to recycle. While there might have been recycle value, what was I going to do with two nasty lead-acid 8Ds? So, let the message wars be re-kindled! For any others desiring to gain intel, call Tom at 770-634-7530. v/r

Kevin Reilly

'92 Concept #4917

Re: Very satisfied Lifeline new customer report

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73854
Hats off to Trans-Specialists for 'making it happen' for you... I understand the comment about life getting in the way. It was nice that Tom could make your problem go away so easily.

Enjoy the charge!
Smitty

04 Allure 31017
04 Allure Sold to a nice new owner! Now enjoying a 07 Magna Rembrandt 45' ISX600 #6775
"We're ONDROAD for THEJRNY!" (Toad and Coach license plates, say Hi if you see us!)

Re: Very satisfied Lifeline new customer report

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73857
Thanks for the atta boy Kevin, I learned something in the process. I never thought we could get your batteries changed out at the Lifeline Manufacturing facility, but when I called and explained the situation, Justin said just send him in, we'll work something out.

All the credit goes to Lifeline, they're a class act and family owned. I won't bore you all with a bunch of dribble, but a few months ago a Prevost owner with 6 8D's that were only 2 yrs old was having battery problems. Turned out, he bought and paid for new Lifelines, but the dealer gave him out of date in stock new batteries that were already 2 yrs old, so now the 2 year old batteries were really 4 years old. When I contacted Jim at Lifeline and told him what happened, he said where does he want new batteries sent at no charge? There's more to the story, but that's customer service and it wasn't Lifelines fault.

All Lifeline's have a branded code on the top outside edge of the case, so if you need to know the age of your batteries, just e-mail me with the 5 letters and I can tell you the age.

Tom

Lifeline Batteries
Pressure Pro
97 Prevost

Re: Very satisfied Lifeline new customer report

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73867
OK, I have responded to these kinds of posts before, so it is once again! I am a firm believer in good old lead-acid (Trojan 6 volt) batteries. I am not a "pool guy" either. Once every 6 moths, I get my water can, which I bought on-line, which fills and stops automatically when full, and bop-bop-bop, I fill the batteries. This makes me a "pool guy"? I have never, ever lost a single 'T' shirt or any article of clothing. I have no corrosion or any problems in my battery compartment at all. It just gets me that people that go out and spend twice the price for batteries find it compelling to somehow justify their tossing the money away. If you want to spend it, fine, but if you put these posts up trying to say it was a smart thing to do, expect to hear from me. I don't think so. My wife and I are avid boondockers, so we use the batteries a lot. I modified the battery compartment to take six 6-volt Trojans, in series-parallel configuration, and I beat out your amp hours easily. To me, the only valid argument for those batteries is that they charge up more quickly. But still not worth the difference in $, IMHO.

Al Colby

2000 Intrigue 10979

Re: Very satisfied Lifeline new customer report

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73875
Speaking for us "non pool guys", I had three indicators to add water.
Dead Batteries

Corrosion covered batteries
Bulging batteries

Otherwise - out of sight out of mind.
For me twice the price is an acceptable compromise.
So are welcome to call me lazy or frivolous.

Bob Wexler
SOB

Re: Very satisfied Lifeline new customer report

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73885
AL

If you have figured how to stop lead acid batteries from spewing corrosive gases you should get a patent and sell it. Just giving you a hard time. For my part I am a non-pool guy.

Dan 2006 Allure 31348 (AGM)

Re: Very satisfied Lifeline new customer report

Reply #6 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73897
Al,

I was once a pool guy but got tired of filling the pool with water. It seems that I was not much better with handling the chlorine tablets either. Kept ruining my expensive $14 shorts from Costco.
Now I own a motorhome and same problem with the batteries. I told my wife she would have to learn to add water.....Ka ching... (2) AGM batteries.
That worked so well I told her she would have to take shorter showers when we are boon docking....50 Gallon extra water tank was added (139 gallons total) along with 40 more gallons of grey water capacity.
Showed her what a country coach or other SOB looks like on youtube when it catches fire because the hydrogen (by product of chemicals in gas refrigerators with crossive tubes) starts leaking from the refrigerator with an open flame near by....Ka Ching....residential refrigerator and two more AGM batteries for a total of 4 8D batteries (no match for your 6 trojans I guess?)
The only question to you Al, has your wife ever added water to your batteries? My wife is really good at setting up a maintenance schedules. If it needs to maintained...replace it with something that does not..... Oh, that reminds me, I need to look over living will to see if I am still under warranty.

All in fun and IMHO

Dallas 2004 intrigue

Re: Very satisfied Lifeline new customer report

Reply #7 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73917
Working for Cat we Installed Cat Lead Acid seald Batterys 8D's in our Rental units. They are expensive but work well. Call you Cat dealer for Price. BTW They last Between four and 7 years! I like others like those lifeline batterys but our three 8D Interstates work for us. You can buy a lot of Trojans for the price of one Lifeline Battery's! Im not Knocking Lifeline Brand. Having Retired so Young I need to watch spending.I still have five years to S.S. Thanks for sharing. Blessed with this lifestyle! Ken 99 Allure 30356.

Re: Very satisfied Lifeline new customer report

Reply #8 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73939
Al

I have sealed Interstate starting batteries and they are in my opinion a good alternative.

Dan 2006 Allure 31348