Deka makes a very good product. Probably amongst the last of the individual
battery manufacturers.
As far as operating a smelter and getting recycled lead Trojan suffers from
limited offerings. They only manufacture small batteries and do not
participate in the automotive/truck starting. Lighting ignition, (SLI)
market. They have no cost effective way to get batteries back. Enersys is a
biggie that includes the brands Exide, Hawker, Odyssey, and some other.
General in the motive power world. And then there is Johnson Controls that
makes so many brands including Interstate, Costco, Sam's Club, Wal-Mart and
many store brands. I think AC Delco is still out there.
http://www.dekabatteries.com/default.aspx?pageid=71

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Richard A Jones
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2012 10:00 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Good pricing, T105 golf cart batteries? [EDIT}

> Without going to some exotic stuff like Surette or something like it,
> Trojan is amongst the best out there. You do pay a premium though.

I'll offer this about Trojan.  I have 4 of them running a PV light system at
a mtn cabin at 10,500' in the Rockies.  Two are six years old and two are
five.  They are performing excellently.

However....

We purchased them from Hensley Battery in Denver.  I have bought other
batteries from them, too.  Like Odyssey.  When I last talked to them, they
told me that had dropped Trojan because of the cost.  In particular, Trojan
cannot recycle the lead because of California rules.  That is, they can't
run a smelter.
So they must use new lead and that makes the cost higher.

Hensley has switched to Deka.  Check http://www.dekabatteries.com Looks like
they run the smelter--and the mine, and the....

I HAVE NOT purchased any of these yet, but when we need to replace the
Trojans, I'll go with what Hensley recommends.  It always pays to shop local
when you want service or a guarantee-- just like with tires.  ;-)

Richard