BATTERY ?

I have a 2002 Lund Fisherman/100HP Yamaha.It has 2 12v batteries in the floor compartment and a rear starting battery.It seems that my starting battery(new) always drains itself fast. My question is what does the rear starting battery all power in this boat? Lights and bilge and starting correct? What about electronics and radio? Any thoughts why this battery runs down so fast? Thanks

I have the same problem with my 2001.

The starting battery is wired to EVERYTHING except your trolling motor. AM/FM/CD, locators…you name it.

There was a suggesting to go to a group 29 which is what I’m going to try this year. I don’t want a 4th battery if I can help it.

More Info<<

The starting battery runs everything except the trolling motor.Do you have a main power shut off?Your locators and GPS will drain over time if you don’t have a battery shut off or main power switch between everything and the starting battery.I run 3 HDS with structure scan and have no
problem. The first thing I did was replace the group 24 with a 31 duel starting deep cycle and always hook up my on board charger.

I have the fourth battery in my boat. It just gives me peace of mind that my big motor will have the juice to start when ever I need it to. The only thing I run on the starter battery is the big motor. Everything else runs on a 29 deep cycle right next to it. Never had a problem since setting things up this way.

Same set up here on my Fisherman. I have killed the starter a couple times after a day of running the livewell, a anchormate, and making very short runs if any at all from spot to spot. I carry a small fold up pair of jumpers now, just in case.

This said, if I am a little smart about it… the problem doesn’t happen. That, and a lot of the problems were my starter battery was never getting fully recharged. After getting bad advice when I bought the boat, I have it on a charger along with my trolling batteries when off the water, all the time. Starting with a freshly charged battery really helps.

Using the battery for everything, then short trips running it never was getting fully recharged. Several consecutive trips like that and the problem was bound to come up. A three bank charger, or like in my case, adding a second charger made a huge difference

Mine did the same until I installed a battery cut off switch for the starter motor battery as the motor will drain the battery over time just sitting in the garage. When you do park the boat in the garage, don’t forget to turn the switch off.

2002 same issue, this summer had a storm coming, hit the switch nothing, hooked up to first trolling battery and not enough juice left to turn over engine, tried 2nd trolling battery and barely turned it over. Lesson learned.

Well,it sounds like I’m not alone on this. Thanks for the advice.

I insisted that Lund install a 3-bank charger in my Explorer 1725 so that starting battery would be maintained whenever the charger is plugged in. The dealer said I don’t need my starting battery on a charger, but I know from past experience it’s a wise thing to do.
Regular lead-acid batteries don’t last long for me so I went to a Optima 27M (for the starter/electronics) which has been a very good investment. I’ve always used the 31M’s on the trolling motor. When I’m at Hayward, I’ll fish all day every day and only charge every 2 or 3 days and never notice any shortage of power.

John S.

I went to a AGM battery and that solved any problems I had with the starting battery not having enough juice to start the main motor after trolling all day with all of the elctronics, pumps, and radios draining it all day. I do have four bank charger though so the battery is fully charged at the start of every day. One thing I learned before I switched to the AGM battery is that if my main motor wouldn’t start, I could pull start my kicker and the altenator on the kicker would have enough to start the main motor.