adding a 2nd starting battery

[Rick Hale]

I

 

[TOMMY RICH]

Keep a jumper in your boat and don't worry about it.

 

[Lamar Gilbert]

I agree with Tee. I carry a pair of jumper cables all the time in case my starting battery lets me down.



If you do add a second battery in parallel, you won't need a 2 bank charger as you will in effect be charging only one battery.



Good luck.

 

[Wayne P.]

If you have room for two batteries, just get the single largest dual purpose battery made and that will take care of the starting and deep cycle use you need.

 

[mike chip]

I saw a new device that is designed to jump your boat from your trolling batteries, but it has a switch on the dash to activate, so you never have to open the back hatch. was interesting, think it was at icast a few weeks ago.

'mike c

 

[cq]

Remember that your best battery (if in parallel) is only as good as your worst.

Battery 101.

cq

 

[Rick Hale]

We normally hit a spot ..may fish there for 3-4+ hours using the TM...crappie fishing working brush and dipping trees.

With 2 HDS7's - LSS-1 - sometimes 2 live wells going..My voltage will drop to 12..0 -12.1V.

When I start the motor, my voltage drops enough to give me a "low voltage Warning" or restart the HDS7.

This does not happen if I start the motor every hour or 2.

Also want to start night fish ..that would add running lights.

I have a size 27 starting battery now. 2 years old..Just don't want to worry about getting stuck on the water.

And yes I have jumpper cables in the boat.



Just maybe replacing my battery with good size 31 battery starting battery would work for me???

Any Ideas on a good 31 size starting battery that won't break the bank?





Thanks

Rick

 

[Wayne P.]

Check out the group 31 Dual Purpose battery at Batteries Plus.



It will handle the deep cycle use you need and the starting also.

 

[Wesley Bowker]

I added another battery to my nitro and here is why, i took my starting battery to a battery specific shop where i live to have it tested. It passed the test so i asked about swapping it to a big deep cycle or a group 31, the store owners reply made alot of sense to me, he said if i ran my accessories. Off of my cranking battery that obviously drew more voltage from that battery. When i did crank the motor the alternator was going to have to work harder and longer to replace those lost volts and since my motor is a newer mercury, the guardian system on that motor(the computer) would be running on lower than required volts for longer. It could make bad calls to the engine, for example it could call for more oil and foul the plugs or it could call for less oil and blow the power head. I added a deep cycle for my accessories and i jumped the grounds together so my alt. Wasn't. Trying to charge that battery too. I also added a 4 bank charger but a 2 bank charging those 2 battery's will do the same thing. Good luck

 

[Mini]

I added a second battery on a switch last year. Might be one of the best moves I have made. But I have alot of accessories running....

 

[greg plunkett]

Well i have had the same problems. I fished a tourney and ran my livewell all day and never left the fishing spot. Went to fire the big motor up to go to weigh in and it would not start and i had my power pole down and it would not come up . I went and bought a good dual purpose battery and put some jumper cables in my boat and now i dont worry about it. But i did alot of research before buying a new battery. Alot of people like the optima batteries but after looking at the RT "reserve capacity" i changed my mine. I have an Optimax pro xs and they require at least a 1000 crankin amps so i found a dual purpose battery with a 1000 CA and a really good RA. I ended up gettin one at autozone. I have been out all day with the livewell running and using my electronics and power pole and have not had an issue at all but i still keep my jumper cables in the boat. Good luck on your battery search but i am not sure i would add another battery just replace it with the right dual purpose battery.

 

[Mini]

While that works for some greg, for others its not practical and having redundancy on big water is always good.



I have a seperate power system in my boat for accessories.



HDS8, LSS-1, Sirius Weather and Radio, Amplifier, am/fm radio, Lowrance VHF radio, two power poles & pumps are all wired to its own fuse panel connected to a 24 series dual purpose battery. That battery is connected to a switch as battery #2 that will allow charging from the onboard 4 bank GUEST charger. The 24 series cranking battery (850cca) has the Ranger boat harness connected to it. That battery is battery #1. The outboard is connected to the switch also. So when the switch is on #1, the outboard cranks from cranking battery only and it charges battery #1 only. When the switch is on battery #2, the outboard will crank from battery #2 and charge battery #2 only. When the switch is on BOTH the outboard will crank from both and charge both.



I usually run it during a tournament with the switch on #1. When I charge it at home I switch it to BOTH so the chargetr can charge both. It works great and I have peace of mind that my HDS/Lowrance/amplifier components wont run down the cranker. Also note that I have a 225 EFI NOT an Opti. If it were an Opti I would have installed a 1000cca cranker.



I also installed 3 50amp circuit breakers. One for the cranking battery, one for the "house" battery and one for the trolling motor batteries. All breakers are shut off during charging so no damage or spikes can get to my electronics.