BATTERIES

Just getting my boat ready for a trip to Kentucky Lake for the first trip of the year. I put the charger on the trolling motor batteries and NOTHING. Both of them are totally dead. Did I do something wrong when I put the boat away for the winter (it is stored in my warm warehouse)? Or is it just the nature of batteries? Any tips for keeping batteries in shape over the winter? Thanks

Were the batteries disconnected? If not, you probably had a slow drain on them over winter.

Some automatic chargers won’t kick on with a totally dead batt. If it has a manual setting, switch it to that. If no manual setting, you may need to borrow/buy one that does.

Check the water level and if low add distilled water before charging. If the batts were in very good shape last fall, you have a good chance they will be OK.

If it were me and I was heading out for a road trip or tourney that’s gunna cost a good chunk of change, I’d bite the bullet and go get a new set. Trips and vacation days are too few an far between to get screwed up by a dead battery!

-J.

I don’t know the best way to maintain battery life, but I do no that I was sick of buying new batteries every year. So… Last year I bought some Optima gel cell batteries. After taking the boat out of cold storage in March, the batteries had leaked off their charge completely. I threw the charger on them and they are strong again. They cost more but I guess you can completely discharge them hundreds of times and they will re-charge…

So far, I like them a lot.

Just a short reminder to disconnect eigther the ground or positive cable so it won’t loose its charge because of small short or moisture in the air. Always give the batteries a full charge befor you put them away for winter and it dosen’t hurt to trickle charge them every couple of months while in storage until spring comes. Use a simple hydrometer to check for acid in the battery and if its low add the acid then fill the rest of the way with distilled water. The reason you want to use distilled water is because it dosen’t have iron in it. Ground water has iron in it from iron ore and this shorts out the plates as the reservious vaporize and you add new water to them, using distilled water is pure water with no iorn ore in it and won’t gradually build up on the plates and water in the battery which shortens the life of the battery.

Here is a pic of my 12 volt on board charger, it puts out 1.5 amps a very slow charge. You can pick one of these up at fleet farm or Batteries Plus for around $29. This one works good for me because I do not fish every day so there is plenty of time between trips for the battery to charge up. This is also a good unit for when you store your rig in the winter as it will maintain and prolong the life of your batteries. I plug mine in when I get home and forget about it and I am good to go the time out. If you need your batteries charged up over night or if you fish almost every day this might not be the unit for you. I also use Optima gel cell batteries and have been very happy with them.

Thanks for all of your suggestions! I am looking into the Optima batteries, but a fellow at the auto parts store told me that you must charge them at a low rate 1.5 amps or they will be ruined. Any thoughts on that? I just put an Optima battery in my son’s Mustang (also stored in my warehouse, it is amazing how I get any work done with all of the toys in here)and charged it at 10 Amps with no apparent problems. Thanks again for all of your help.

Optima info
Optima

I had a battery expert tell me to buy the lowest amperage battery chargers I could get when I was outfitting my boat. He told me that the larger amp chargers were not the best thing for my batteries and he told me to stay away from the automatic chargers. I purchased two 2/6 amp chargers for about $20 each. These chargers are plenty to recharge my deepcell batteries over night and they do not boil your batteries dry. I get around 3 to 4 seasons out of a pair of deepcells. The only maintenence I do is check the water level every month or so.

Eyehunter

I can’t rememeber where I found this (I think it was this site), but it’s a quick read and I have found it very usefull.

Airpart, do you have a Lowrance GPS? There is a constant battery drain on some of those units (example Globalmap). That is why mine is hooked up to the accessory switch. I turn off the switch when I shut my GPS off so I do not have battery drain.

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Airpart, do you have a Lowrance GPS? There is a constant battery drain on some of those units (example Globalmap). That is why mine is hooked up to the accessory switch. I turn off the switch when I shut my GPS off so I do not have battery drain.

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Thanks but I don’t have a GPS just yet. I think I forgot to fully charge them when I put the boat away last year and they drained over the winter. I just went to Sam’s Club yesterday and picked up a couple of Optima deep cycle batteries and hope that will solve the problem. That and more attention to maintenance.

I have the minnkota 3 bank charger,10-10-10.the amperage drops after a full charge and i usually get about 3 yrs out of my batt also.In the summer im on the water 4 to 5 times a week so they get charged often. I havent had the first problem with them charging like that.