battery's? help

[fshnne1]

I am looking at replacing and adding to my boat the current battery, first question is, what is the difference between a deep cycle and a standard vehicle battery? I only get out on the boat about 10 - 20 times a year, I have a 65hp merc 650 outboard, running lights, fishfinder, bilge pump, and a trolling motor maybe be adding a radio.. what I was thinking was to do a deep cylce starting for the 65hp, and hooking the rest up to a big standard battery, what would you think is the best set up? the 65 hp will run a back charge, also I have a solar charger that will be hooked up.

 

[Paul Moir]

Re: battery's? help

You've got it backwards if anything. Starting batteries are really only good for starting an engine. After that the charging system is supposed to take over. They do not survive being discharged very well as you probably already know. Like if you leave your lights on in a car and drain the battery even just once, you'll probably be replacing that battery next winter.<br /><br />Deep cycles put up with discharging better and will last far longer. But even with them you try not to drain them much more than 50%. A trolling motor necessitates a deep cycle.<br /><br />Depending on how much you use the trolling motor and whether you can start the engine without the aid of the electric starter, I would use either one deep cycle battery or two deep cycle batteries. A "starting" battery or "combo" is completely unnecessary. You will also need to invest in a good automatic charger as the outboard's charging system will not keep up with the trolling motor if you use it much, and the solar panels are normally just battery maintainers. That is to say, they keep them from self-discharging.

 

[fshnne1]

Re: battery's? help

the main thing I was thinking was I would hate to run everything off a exspensive deep cycle and get out to the middle of the lake and have it go dead because I have to many systems running off one battery, the trolling motor would maybe be used at the most a hour each time out. if I put a radio in it would just be for when we pull into back hole and have everyone taking a swim, the long running would be the fish finder and night fishing my running lights...

 

[fshnne1]

Re: battery's? help

would running everything off one battery and having a standard battery for a jump start be an ok option If I was to run the deep cycle all the way down to the point I could not get my merc 65 to start

 

[Paul Moir]

Re: battery's? help

The reason the battery is expensive is that it lasts much, much longer. The cheap starting battery will not last 6 months used with the troller, if that.<br /><br />All other current drains are negligible compared to the trolling motor. Unless that's a 1000W system you want to put in and always crank it to the max. Some people add some convenience lighting and that can add up if you leave it on most the night. <br /> <br />A second backup battery is always a good idea if starting your engine without a battery isn't easy. Some of the older outboards had pull starts as well as electric starters, so if the battery died it wasn't serious. Almost all outboards can be started with a dead battery by wrapping a rope around the flywheel and pulling though, since their ignition systems are independent of the battery.<br /><br />So you should look for a small starting battery for starting the merc, a battery isolator so the outboard can charge both at the same time, and probably a battery switch so you can start off the deep cycle if need be. The starting battery would have nothing drawing from it but the outboard.<br /><br />You could just carry the second battery for jump starting, but I think it would be far more useful just to make it all automatic. Battery switches and the tiny isolator you'll need are pretty cheap equipment.

 

[JB]

Re: battery's? help

Moving to Electrics. . .