What type of batteries

[midnight1957]

After reading some of the past post about batteries I have a question.
I just bought a marine deep cycle battery to use for cranking and my trowling motor. After reading it seems like some of you guys are using a regular (car) battery to crank your motors and a deep cycle for the radio, trowling etc.
Is that the right way to go, with that setup if your cranking (car) battery should go dead you can always use the deep cycle battery to crank the motor and get to shore, does this sound right?
Need opinions.

Thanks,
Wade

 

[5150abf]

Re: What type of batteries

If you are only running one battery go with the deep cycle, some guys run 2 or even 3 batteries.

I have a starting battery and 2 deep cycles for the boat, in my opinion it is better to have a starting battery and a boat battery, no chance of not getting started then.

 

[takirb]

Re: What type of batteries

I've got 1 deep cycle and 1 marine starting battery. The deep cycle runs the radio, lights, etc, and the motor is the only thing connected to the starting battery. I've also got an emergency jump start box just in case. It only takes 1 time of having a dead battery before you learn a lesson lol

I tried using a Perko battery switch, but somehow it didn't work and ended up draining both batteries at once though i never once selected "All" or whatever. I also think it's good practice to check the charge of each battery the night before each outing...

 

[lncoop]

Re: What type of batteries

You need to have two batteries on board, a marine cranking battery and a deep cycle battery. Make sure they're both marine batteries, because regular car batteries can't handle the vibration and stress that they will endure in a boat. Cranking batteries are designed to provide infrequent bursts of power and don't like to be fully discharged, while deep cycle batteries are designed to be depleted and recharged on a regular basis. You'll find that if you use one of each of these types of batteries as intended they'll last you a long time. If there's an Academy Sports in your area I'd recommend going there. I'm not 100% certain, but I believe their Stowaway batteries are made by Exide. They're cheap and have always worked well for me. Good luck!