how many are running a 5th batt. dedicated to electronics alone? does it seem to make any diff. i have a Yamaha F300 and soceye gave me a part number for the charging cable that he uses to keep the 5th batt charged
I am currently running 999, and 2 1199s going to switch one out for a helix 12.
I’m interested in the same thing, add a 4th battery. The starting battery gets drained pretty quickly when your using your hours on end
I’m interested in the same thing, add a 4th battery. The starting battery gets drained pretty quickly when your using your hours on end
how old and what size is your starting battery?. Using a deep cycle group 31 battery with enough MCA to start your main motor will give you more than enough power for a day/night on the water.
Interstate battery. New this year. When running two graphs, it just drains it. I have to start the main motor at least every two hours.
When using your trolling motor and following the contour on these small southern MN lakes. It would be nice to have a longer run time.
I was thinking of adding another interstate deep cycle and run it parallel. Essentially giving me 4 hours of use.
I’m assuming your running a 36v trolling motor and your other single battery runs the electronics and motor.
I have similar electronic usage. 1199, 898, 788, nav lights, I’m also a heavy radio user and unfortunately my bilge runs often too.
But, I love fishing long days and multi days. So I run two group 29’s in parallel to keep up with my battery consumption.
If you have the space and can handle the weight… Add that 5th batt for sure
Also. Are you really draining in two hours, or are you just seeing voltage drop due to high amp consumption?
I can turn on all my electronics and watch my voltage go from 12.3 to 11.9… It’ll run that way for days.
I just put in new batteries Monday and hope to see that voltage drop reduce only slightly.
Lastly. By linking all your units and sharing capabilities my assumption is the electronics use less amps… Have all 3 running off of 1 GPS as an example should mean the other two units aren’t using their GPS… I’m only guessing that I’m saving power that way, I do not have facts though.
Using a deep cycle group 31 battery with enough MCA to start your main motor will give you more than enough power for a day/night on the water.
X2
I run a Odyssey PC2250 as my starter/electronics battery. Can run livewell/baitwell pumps all day, 1158 bird, 1199 bird, Lowrance touch 12, and nav/anchor lights. Main motor is a Yamaha 300 off shore and am yet to have a starting problem.
I have to start the main motor at least every two hours.
Running the starter motor for 5 seconds will likely use more juice than a day of all your electronics combined. And unless you are running your motor at significant RPMs it is doing very little at actually charging the battery. Most alternators only produce slightly more than enough power at idle to run the motor. The same reason you want to take a significant drive after jump starting a vehicle and not just letting it idle or a short cruise down the street.
What I believe you may be seeing is a voltage drop from the power draw. I’ll bet once you shut off all electronics it bumps back up to around 12.3 volts fairly quickly. Perfectly normal and should not affect your cranking power.
it used to be that sonar/gps units drew almost nothing…but as the screen sizes and information processing has grown, they’ve begun to draw appreciably: multiple times that of earlier units. the big Helix and Onix screens are at the point where if you’re running multiple units it’s worth paying attention to power supply issues.
you could consider adding a 12v tractor/utility battery in parallel with your starting battery to extend useful time. these are smaller than normal marine batteries, so don’t take up much space or add as much weight.
http://www.scout.com/outdoors/wired2fish/story/1652072-increase-your-fishing-boat-s-battery-life
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