After about 4 hours of fishing with the live wells going my main battery will die. I do run two 10.5" Humminbirds and power poles but I still expect my battery to get me through an 8 hour tournament. Is this common or should I buy a new one. I'll start shutting off electronics if it comes down to it but it's not the ideal situation.
How old is your battery?? Running all that equipment requires the biggest battery that you can get. If your battery is 4 or 5 years old it may be time for a new one. If you do decide to buy a new battery, buy the biggest one you can especially since your running all that equipment. Bigger in your case is going to be better.
BD ;D
What size, brand and type of battery is it?
Are the connections clean and tight?
Is it attached to your outboard also and what size outboard?
I'm running three color screens (two 5" and an HB 997) and they killed my old battery within a day easily, especially with the livewell running. I got a new, bigger battery and it hasn't gone dead in a day yet but it does need charging after a day of fishing when I don't run the big motor much. I think that the big screens and SI must put a heavy load on the battery.
The engine is a 250 merc. we bought the boat from D&R Sports and they said it was one of the best batteries you can buy. It was JVD's old boat so he may have burned up the battery.
Check the water level in the battery as well. Only takes a couple of minutes.
And water's cheap.
Quote from: GPaquette on June 22, 2011, 12:28:21 PM
The engine is a 250 merc. we bought the boat from D&R Sports and they said it was one of the best batteries you can buy. It was JVD's old boat so he may have burned up the battery.
Might be a "good" battery - but what kind is it? MCA and reserve minutes? I never trust a dealer if the just say it is "one of the best". I don't want "one of the best" - I want the "best".
I also run a 250 ProXS and 4 GPS units. Only battery that is good enough for me is the Die Hard Platinum D31M. Anything less is toast if I am runnin and gunnin - and in hot weather I like to keep my livewells on constant.
I am running a DieHard Platinum Marine too, but it's just a Group 34 or 29 I think. The 31's don't fit well in my little boat.
Get a 31 size battery if you have the big screen graphs. I use a Deka Marine Master flooded (wet cell) 31 and have never run out of juice in a day despite all the extra stuff I run on it nowadays. I use a dual purpose battery so it can start the motor and run my trolling motor once in a while on 36v since I have a 24/36 motor.
I usually run the trolling motor on 24v but sometimes I need the 36v boost. And sometimes I run it quite a bit on 36v putting more pressure on that start battery. Still okay. I can count on it. I like that.