What next crank battery?

[NCT]

I have a '92 Evinrude Intruder 150 on 92 Stratos. A little cold natured, but isn't too bad to get cranked. Runs sweet still.

Anyhow, is time to buy a new battery for cranking. What brand, etc. would some recommend? I don't mind spending for the best, as I've experienced being towed in before from my previous Sprint/Johnson 115. (twice) and was too aggravated to think about using either of the 2 trolling batts to start. Was on a big lake about 10yrs ago, that I had never been on and kinda got paranoid I guess.  :-/

[GAMEOVER]

I dont know if their popular or not in the boating world but I use to install car audio equipment, yeah yeah it has nothing to do with fishing but they make a battery to handle the extreme loads the brand of choice at the time was a company called Optima. The Optima batterys are very good and I think their marine series is called a "blue-top".

[NBR]

Every thing I have read about Optima batteries is positive but they are pricey. Just be sure to get a marine cranking battery. Marine batteries are built more durable to stand up to the pounding. You should get a battery with as many reserve amps that will fit in your battery holder or be prepare to put in a new battery holder. If the battery you are replacing is the original I would think the existing size is just fine and you have taken good care of it since it has lasted a long time.

I too have had a cranking battery let me down and need a tow. Now I have a set of jumpers in a holder that rides in the boat all summer and the car in the winter.

If you don't have an on-board charger, you might want to think of getting a unit. Be sure you have a bank for each battery. I put one on my boat years ago and it basically resolved all of my charging issues and is much much more convenient.

[NCT]

Thanks Gameover. I too used to do stereos that went to IASCA a few times. Optima I've heard of, but never used. Heard good things of their marine series.

NBR, I have a 2 bank charger on my trolling batts. Have trolled nearly 12hrs continuous, and never ran them dead.. Guess I figured the charging system on the motor would take care of the cranking battery.

Buddy of mine told me to get a high quality trolling battery for a crank battery.. Now I'm confused. LOL  Well, no hurry now. I'll get something soon.

thanks for the suggestions.

[Pa Angler]

I use an Interstate dual purpose Marine battery series 27 to handle all the accessories: 2 livewells, spot light, electric start, power trim, lights, console mounted GPS fish finder and the bow mounted fish finder as well. A series 26 came with the boat and I ran it dead in the middle of the night and had to hand start my motor.

P.S. I also carry a spare 27 with me as well because you never know.

Chow

[Way2slow]

Deep cycle trolling motor batteries work on small and most midsize four cylinder motors but not on the larger motors and V-6s, You can run into starting problems. Deep cycle batteries are not designed to deliver the higher cranking amps required for bigger motors. The voltage drop caused by the lack of cranking amps to properly spin the motor, can cause a drop in ignition output voltage.

Dual purpose batteries deliver the necessary cranking amperage for a short time while still being able to withstand the long, slow current drain and discharge that cranking batteries can't handle.

Almost no outboard charging system (even the larger 35 - 40 amp system and no way will a 10 - 15 amp system) will maintain a full charge on bass boats cranking batteries, even if you make long runs. It would take a couple of hours to fully charge a battery that been used to run all the junk bass boats have powered up. Several studies have been done on tournament boats and the cranking batteries in almost all of them were only about 80% or less when they came back to weigh-in. You should always charge your cranking batteries at the end of your fishing day.

As for what type battery for your boat, that's just depends on how much you want to pay. There are many differences in batteries, they are not all created equal. Cheap batteries are cheap for a reason. At the same time, unless you really nead a sealed, maintenance free battery, the batteries the you add water to can be bought with a higher amphour capacity than those sealed batteries.

[DEISWERTH]

Way2slow, so how do you have your batteries set up? I know you know alot about this and I value your opinion. Where do you hook-up your extras/ to what battery, cranking or trolling, or would you split them up between the two? I also have a dual purpose battery that I use for starting (50horse) and have all my extras:radio, aireator, depthfinder, beilge pump, lights, hooked to and have had no problems yet. Is this OK? Thanks Doug

[NCT]

Way2slow,

Your comments make a lot of sense. I'll buy a top brand marine battery with around 1000cca. My 2 trolling motor batteries are still in good shape and I have a 2bank charging system on them.

thanks again for the input here,

[Way2slow]

I never connect anything to my TM batteries but the TM.  Even when I use my jon boat in ponds with TM only, if I'm using a depth finder, it's running off a small 12 volt battery.  I used to use those $20 lawn mower batteries but finally broke down and bought a 20 Ah gel battery.  It can get knocked over, layed on it side, and poked just about any place you want out of the way and not have to worry about the battery.  You just have to be sure you have a gel charger.

The trolling motor can cause interference and even damage your depth finder or any other electronic devices you might have connected to the TM batteries.  Your variable speed TMs put out a high frequency that can feed back into your electronics.  You TM's that have the numbered speed positions cause a voltage spike every time you start and stop them.  This spike can be enough to damage your electronics if it gets into them.  Your battery acts as a capacitor and absorbs most of it but if you have a slightly loose or back connection, it's posible to zap your electronics with a few hundred volts, and they usually don't like that.   They also have filters to aborb spikes but as the old saying goes s*** happens.  Sometimes, running your LCD depth finder of the TM battery, you will notice everytime you start/stop the TM you will see a black line on the LCD, this was the spke I was talking about.

Let me change my "never".  I used to go night fishing for white bass.  We usually tied up under a bridge and droped minows, I would use my TM batteries to run lights we used in the water.

[sodaksker]

A buddy of mine has been a master gm auto tech for over 35 years.  He is also an avid fishermen.  He recommended AC delco batteries to me for my trolling batteries.  He claims he has been running a set for over 6 years and they have never let him down.  They were about $90 a piece and I think 1200cca.

[DEISWERTH]

Ok, so your saying to only hook the TM to the deecycle batteries-got it. What about everything else? Is it ok to hook everything else to the cranking battery? I use my radio everytime I fish, the lights about five times a year, the depth/fish finder all the time and my livewell/aireator only four times a year when I fish two tournys, but I run it constantly. Would this be to much for the cranking battery? Or would you buy another just for this stuff--a fourth battery? Thanks

[Way2slow]

Run the biggest 27, 30 or 31 dual purpose and you should have no problem running everything off the cranking battery.  When I say biggest, I mean the highest reserve minutes or amphour battery you can get.  CCA or MCA don't mean a whole lot, that's just the short term power it has to crank the motor.  The Ah capacity or reserve minutes it what tells the story of how much plate area a battery has.  With the right battery, the depth finders, pull very little, the pumps pull about 3 amps so if you never started your motor, and ran depth finders and two pumps 10 hours without them shutting off, you should still have approx 50% battery, Normally 20% will still start the motor.

Now, for the radio, if your talking marine radio, no problem, if you have your radio/stereo booming like some of these cars running around, then you might run into a problem because you're pulling bunches of amps off the battery then.  

To answer your question, everything should connect to the cranking battery but the TM and nothing should be connected to the TM batteries but the TM.   Now, this is strickly the recommended way, I always say, it's not my equipment so you can connect everything the way it makes you feel comfortable.

[DEISWERTH]

Thank you very much, that's exactly what I needed to know.

P.S. It's just a regular radio, and I just play it loud enough to hear.

Doug

[floridabassboy]

I have a everstart and it works realy well