49 months out of my Interstate start batteries

[chessie4905]

It's hard to get any idea about how good or bad 8D or any brand of them are. People use/abuse them differently; run house loads off them, start only, run low on water, run down too far, have them go completely dead, phantom loads, improper charging, etc... On the 4104, we used them as the house and generator start batteries also. Figured they would need replaced every three years, which wasn't bad, considering the overall expense and we had a 12volt/110 refer and propane furnace, and Koehler 12kw generator. Also, 6-71's crank longer to start vs 8-71's which seem to light off instantly. If the batteries got low enough to not start engine (infrequently), they would always start the generator, which after charging for 15 minutes, could start coach engine. We did  check the cells and water needs regularly.

[wg4t50]

Chessie4905,
Correct, everyone does things a little differently.
When I was running my MC7, one of the prime issues I kept up front was all systems were stand alone, such as Batteries for the engine, 24 V, 2, 8D, for the 12 kw Diesel Genset, a   12 Volt, 24 or 27, for house a single 24 or 27, as I always ran the genset non stop 24/7 when away from the garage. Each battery setup had a seperate charger, so could keep eye on all.  More, the cooling system for each was a stand alone, same for fuel tank, genset had a 50 gal tank, the reason for all this was, if the MC7 died, I could maintain comfy from the genset, if the genset failed, I could run to motel, but one or the other was not a killer.
We are all nuts, ya know, just depends on who is judging who.