What battery to buy

[abber]

My new electric start Nissan 18HP 4 stroke manual says to use a 12V 70AH battery. I have found the Amp-Hour ratings to be quite confusing, to say the least. It seems that when I find something in that range, it is awfully large for such a small motor. Shouldn't Nissan be stating CCA as the primary concern for battery selection? Anyway, any help would be appreciated. I will also be running a CUDA 168EX fish finder, with a current draw of 160mA, so a dual purpose deep cycle would seem the way to go.

 

[dingbat]

Re: What battery to buy

I'm not sure what you mean by awful large. A 12 v 70 ah battery is not much larger than a lawn tractor battery. Don’t confuse 70 ah with 70 RC because they are completely different units of measurement.

 

[tomatolord]

Re: What battery to buy

1st do a search and read all of the battery posting here on the site - there about a thousand of them.<br /><br />2nd here is the deal on batteries in short real boats use 2<br /><br />deep cycle are used for the electronics so that you can run all your fish finders, gps, radio etc all day on 1 battery - and it usually connected to the engine to recharge - but the engine is not always running hence the need for a large deep discharge battery.<br /><br />Starting batter - with no other electronics running of it...Starting an engine requires High discharges that a deep cycle at the end of the day MAY not be able to deliver hence the seperate battery.<br /><br />I have only a deep discharge battery - because I want to run the electronics all day.<br /><br />However I have a pull start 40hp Suzuki, that after the initial cranking from startup will start with 1 pull afterwards.<br /><br />Since your 18hp probably also has a pull start then you would not be stuck if the battery was too low to start the engine.<br /><br />CCA is more of a guide for cars in winter then boats in summer

 

[abber]

Re: What battery to buy

I wound up getting an Interstate HD-24DP. Thanks for your feedback.