[prairieschooner]

Steve, what brand of 8D deep cycle are you using?

Please remember that I treat my Battery Banks as separate Battery Banks and have to manually Energize the Merge Solenoid in order to Charge say the House Bank with the Alternator or say the Starting Bank with the Charging function of the Inverter/Charger for the Hose Bank. I have made this change because I see each bank to have a different purpose and different need.

I am not using Deep Cycle size 8D Batteries, I am using a typical size 8D Starting Batteries for the Starting Bank. These are relatively inexpensive and designed for Heavy Equipment (like you have been around lately) I think they are about $130.00 each. This Bank is only Charged by the Alternator unless Merged.
For the House Bank I am using Trojan T-105, Flooded Lead Acid, 6 Volts DC Golf Cart Batteries. These are Charged by the Power Inverter Charging Function of the Heart Power Inverter or the SOLAR Panels unless Merged.