Here's what the dealer told me (want your opinions)

[Dingleberry]

Originally Posted by joesam

You misunderstood - the 12's will easily do 20 mi. plus - BUT, it takes a toll on them

Oh, thanks for clearing that up joesam. I am impressed by you getting 12 years out of any size battery!

[joesam]

I just added an edit to my post - re: real world experience.

[Dingleberry]

Originally Posted by joesam

EDIT: I have a friend running 12's on a Precedent that are 7 years old (he takes good care) but he only runs them for 1 round of golf between charges. They are just now slowing at the end of a round. Our golf course had a fleet of 12's on lease when Precedents were first introduced (hard use - 2-3 rounds per day). 75% of them had to be replaced by CC before the 4 year lease was up.

That sounds similar to my scenario. I bought mine from a fleet sale from a golf course. It is a 2005 and the guy told me the batteries were replaced in 2009 (4 years). Of course, I put much less use on them, mostly just weekends and usually much less than 10 miles. So mine lasted from 2009 until now, but it started to slow down last year. I would like to get 6-7 solid years out of batteries and not be worried the last couple of years if I'm going to make it home or not after a long day of cruising.

[Dingleberry]

Well, I decided to go with the Trojan T1275 12v's again. I really wanted to convert to 8v, but life does not allow me the time and trouble to do the conversion right now, which is the main reason that I didn't. Maybe next time, or when I am retired???

[Volt_Ampere]

30 miles is a long run. I bet you are going below the 50% charge doing that kind of run with the 4x12 setup. If it were me and I was doing long runs like that I would go with the 6x8 to get the extra Amp Hour capacity. If you treat the batteries the same, they will last longer that way and save you $$ in the long run.