Battery Price Markup by Shipyard - 60%?

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by deblen

Also,if we expect local small businesses to stay around for our future convenience,we must support them ,within reason.

I have supported local small businesses in the past and had them:
a) disappear anyway
b) sell me high-margin goods with a promise of warranty and trade-in service knowing they were going to close soon
c) not even interview my teenage kid who applied for a parts counter job
d) quit providing parts and service for the product I bought (no longer a dealer for said product)


Four different shops.



Don't be fooled. It's a transaction, not a relationship. Some of them may send you Christmas cards but none of them are coming to your funeral. Caveat emptor. Sometimes I will pay extra for what is in stock locally or for service but I am done paying extra just to be nice.

[Goodxcharly]

In general boat yards are expensive for mediocre work. Avoid them whenever possible.

[nofacey]

I have a great local shipyard - but they aren’t cheap. I price check on all major items, batteries incl, and tell them when they’re not competitive. Sometimes they price match, some times they just admit they can’t match the price - never created any friction…..but ya gotta do it before the job, not after.

[howlingengines]

Originally Posted by Striker

Lol, sorry but how long have you owned a boat?
I once heard it said “ we didn’t get rid of pirates, they moved ashore and opened marinas”

Agree mostly with your last point , although some of them moved in to Marine maintenance

[GrowleyMonster]

6v batts are pretty easy to handle. Why not just get them from a golf cart dealer and install them yourself?

BTW you didn't mention shipping, on your internet source. For FLA batts it can be monstrous. I get my GC-2 size 6 volt batteries from Sams Club. For many years they were $85 each and I ran a 48v bank of them in my e-boat and got 7 years of very solid use out of the bank. Recently I replaced the pair of 8D batteries in my present diesel sloop with six GC-2. These are true deep cycle, not compromise between start and deep cycle batteries, so they last longer. I have not used LifeLine but the form factor must be similar. Don't ship, and don't pay yard prices. source locally from cheapest vendor in your area. Deal and done.

[jalmberg]

Buyer beware

[sailnautilus]

So just some insight on how cheap cruisers do it……
We needed 8 (yes eight) Lifeline AGM batteries, size 8D…this is our house bank, weigh about 180 lbs each. Installed below our salon floor in aluminum rack in a 52’ Kanter. Boat is on the hard in boatyard.
1. Get quote from yard. Get quote for removal and installation of batteries. Laugh…..
2. Call at least ten suppliers in south Florida, most wholesale battery vendors.
3. Find batteries at half of yard price. Take landscape flatbed trailer two hours away to pick up batteries.
4. Take batteries to yard, use of fork lift was prohibitive $$$. So removed salon floor and settee, uninstalled batteries and hoisted off vessel with block and tackle on boom. Lifted new batteries on same block and tackle, installed under salon floor. Husband is electrical wizard so had fabricated all new wiring and installed new charger and inverter as well as monitoring system.
5. Take used batteries to recycler, on flatbed trailer.
6. Go home, have stiff drink, ibuprofen and soak in tub.

Some day I will just write the check.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Student_Driver

Are you saying that it would not be unusual for a large and well known chain of shipyards to charge more than 50% over retail for parts?

Ugh.

It's not been my experience at other shipyards. Usually, it's the number of hours for work, where I've felt squeezed but not usually on parts, or not to this degree.

.
Again, when they suggest you replace, or you ask them to, You really need to ask them how much they are.
Boat yards are NOT discount places usually. Many require you to buy the bottom paint from them at high prices also.

It is disconcerting for sure. Somewhere along the line we learn to trust people but find we really can't often.

My long term mechanic while doing some work on my car told me the oil sender was dripping. I said replace it. It cost $171 (with the car already on the rack)
I forgot this was done and 4-5 months later I noticed it was leaking. So I bought one $38 and it was a 5-10 minute job. It's literally at the engine front easy to get to. I then noticed the receipt in the glove box for the mechanic done one. I worked as a mechanic when I was young, we used flat rate for quotes, but if a job was easy and the flat rate was wrong, we wouldn't charge our good customers like that. It's called "flat rate" pricing but the real name is "rip off" pricing.

[OneBoatman]

Where I am for example I recently found that Port Supply is sometimes 25-30% above say a Defender price on many items, but I not too far from Defender so I don't typically pay for shipping and Port Supply is delivering it it my marina. So, if your yard uses the Port Supply division of West Marine and then they add a little something for their time you can see some big differences. You can almost always save money if you do the leg work yourself but like anything else you have to know what you're getting for your money and who is standing behind it.

[Tellie]

I wouldn't want the overhead most marinas have.

[jcapo]

Batteryguys.com

Lifeline GPL-4CT
6v - 220AH Deep Cycle Battery FREE SHIPPING
$419.99

I bought 6 of those two years ago. They were dropped shipped from an almost local warehouse, Savannah. Came on a pallet a few days later.

[more]

marina is not charity organization, everybody have price and worker have sallary.
do it or pay somebody easy choice.
i do it myself everything, my friend take bank loan and pay somebody and don't eat 1 week.hi say this is more healthy. and iam stupid