Can I leave all of my things hooked up to my battery while my boat is in the garage?

[ngt]

New Question:



While I am out on my boat, I have the Fish Finder, the trolling motor, and the 4 stroke's charging cable hooked up to the battery. When I get home, sould I unhook all of that stuff while my boat is sitting in my garage? Or can I leave it all hooked up?

thanks!!

It may be a stupid question, but this is my first boat, motor, anything etc etc and I don't want to mess up my outboard.







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can I leave things hooked up to my battery while the outboard recharges it?

I have a 4 stroke honda 7.5 with the 12v battery charger thing on the side. I want to hook it up to my battery, but am totally new to boats and want to make sure I can leave the fish finder and trolling motor hooked to the battery while I am doing this. So, can I just wire all 3 things (trolling, fish find, and charger wires) directly to the battery, leave it all hooked up, and run everything without issues?

thanks

 

[Boss Hawg]

Re: can I leave things hooked up to my battery while the outboard recharges it?

Re: can I leave things hooked up to my battery while the outboard recharges it?

Yes

 

[ngt]

Re: can I leave things hooked up to my battery while the outboard recharges it?

Re: can I leave things hooked up to my battery while the outboard recharges it?

Yes

cool

 

[ngt]

Re: can I leave things hooked up to my battery while the outboard recharges it?

Re: can I leave things hooked up to my battery while the outboard recharges it?

Something else I was wondering,

can I leave all of this stuff hooked up while storing my boat in the garage, or do I need to unhook the battery from the fishfinder, trolling motor, and honda 4 stroke?

thanks!

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Can I leave all of my things hooked up to my battery while my boat is in the gara

Sure. As long as everything is shut off, you'll be OK. There's the rub, though. I accidentally bumped my trolling motor on in the garage and ran the battery down, so it was discharged the next time I wanted to go fishing.

Fortunately, it was on its lowest speed setting, so it didn't burn out the motor, which is not supposed to be run out of water.

It's so easy to just disconnect one side of the battery that I do that now.

 

[ngt]

Re: Can I leave all of my things hooked up to my battery while my boat is in the gara

Ok, cool, better safe than sorry.

thanks!

 

[slasmith1]

Re: Can I leave all of my things hooked up to my battery while my boat is in the gara

or you can make it easy and install one of these.http://www.iboats.com/Mini_Battery_Switch/dm/*******.449413145--**********.638517256--view_id.238083

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Can I leave all of my things hooked up to my battery while my boat is in the gara

I stay hooked up all the time. Just make sure that I take the key out ever since I left it switched on for a week !!!!

 

[scipper77]

Re: Can I leave all of my things hooked up to my battery while my boat is in the gara

I pull my battery out of the boat in the winter and I still top off the charge every 2 weeks. As long as you don't place an unnecessary load on your battery you will be fine for many years to come.

 

[freddyray21]

Re: Can I leave all of my things hooked up to my battery while my boat is in the gara

in the garage I keep everything hooked up year round no problem. Like others have said just don't leave anything on.

 

[briguy2817]

Re: Can I leave all of my things hooked up to my battery while my boat is in the gara

I added a shut off switch at the battery so everything stays hooked up but nothing will accidently run the battery down. The only thing I have wired constantly to the battery is the motor tilt/trim. Everything else is disconnected as soon as the boat is back on the trailer by flipping a lever.

Brian

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: Can I leave all of my things hooked up to my battery while my boat is in the gara

I used to use a battery disconnect, but a not-bright mechanic "fixed it" for me by removing the plastic isolation plate, and haven't replaced it in years. I just make sure everything is off (a habit since I learned on stuff with points and my low-amp accesories like sonar and lights are wired through a master kill switch- hit it and everything but trolling motor is dead.

In short, you can leave everything hooked up as long as it is off, like others have said.

 

[gss036]

Re: Can I leave all of my things hooked up to my battery while my boat is in the gara

I agree with the above posts on a battery switch. I have had one for years, but was leaving it on and a couple months ago, went to go fishing and both batteries were dead as a door knob and would not take a charge. The interstate batteries were replaced under warranty since they were on 6-8 months old. Still haven't totally figured out what happened, but now I turn my battery switch off when I put the boat in the barn.

 

[ngt]

Re: Can I leave all of my things hooked up to my battery while my boat is in the gara

should I disconnect things while recharging the battery? Or still fine as long as everything else is off?

 

[cbavier]

Re: Can I leave all of my things hooked up to my battery while my boat is in the gara

Charging is fine as long as everything is off?

 

[5150abf]

Re: Can I leave all of my things hooked up to my battery while my boat is in the gara

A battery disconnect is the way to go, I actually have 2, one for the main power and another for the trolling motor, it is a wireless model and needs to be disconnected before charging the battery, if it isn't hooked to anything it can't go dead.

If you troll alot you may want to consider a seperate battery for the boat so you don't run your starting battery down and get stranded, alot of boats run a main battery for lights, fish finders, troller ect and a seperated one for the starter.