Charging Question

Fished Saturday 6:45 a.m. until 1:45 p.m. We made several 1-3 mile runs to new spots, and ran only live wells and both Lowrances. When I went to fire up to head in the cranking battery was dead. Lights were all green when we unplugged in the morning.

Anything that I can check, or is that normal time? Thought I've run longer than that before. I noticed the bow unit was reading 10.2 - 10.5 shortly before I tried to start it up.

Trolling motor batteries seemed to be just fine and I ran that all day long.

Sounds like you got a weak battery. I fished from 7:00pm to 3:30am this last saturday running lights, both sonars, livewell pumps and using a spotlight on and off and my battery never missed a beat. I was making even shorter runs than you in between fishing spots. BTW I never charge my cranking batteries with a charger and have never had an issue unless the battery was weak. IMHO they get all the charge they need from the alternator. You really need to get that thing checked out especially since you are running an HPDI. The low voltage can cause the pumps to produce low fuel pressure and lean running conditions and we all know what lean conditions do to pistons. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/sick.gif

just a suggestion, but have you checked the water in the cranking battery lately? Now that it's starting to warm up, the water gets low and you lose the whole battery.

Jeff

Thanks guys. I will check it out. I guess I just assumed it was a maintenance free battery. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/doh.gif

remember to use DISTILLED water and don't overfill it....

JD

Craig.... Junk the group 24 battery thats in there and get one atleast a group 29-31 that has the cranking amps that your motor requires. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/wink.gif

I have 4 group 27s, two for the trollin motor and two for "everything else". The two for everything else go through a multi baterry selector switch.. Anyhow, Fri night I was out from 2am to 7am, had one sonar on full time, the stereo on 90% of the time, the nav lights on from 2-6am, and forgot to turn off the gauges most of the time. Was on engine power a total of maybe 30 mins, with 6-8 starts. Anyhow, never even used the second battery, and the primary battery is still reading 12.2V on the sonar screen.

Group? What do you mean by group 27 or group 31

In the battery world, they make different sizes of batteries, like small, medium, large... except they don't call it that... they call it GROUP 24, 27, 31, etc... the larger the number the bigger the battery. And the larger size typically has more cranking amps if its a starter battery or if marine battery it holds more charge giving you longer usage, etc...

- JD

I just may, Mike. Also, this is a stupid question, but can you check the water in a maintenance free bat?

If you have the maintanence free, then you don't check the water. It's just that... Maintenence free. My dealer puts in the trojans, but it's the water type. I've since replaced with GELs and will not go back to water batteries.

I would take it to an auto parts store; autozone, etc.. and have them check the battery on their diagnostic tool. it's a pain to take it out and all but they can tell you if you have a bad cell.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CGWright &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I just may, Mike. Also, this is a stupid question, but can you check the water in a maintenance free bat? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Nope... Thats why reg lead acid batts are better in my opinion. All of the heavy duty applications that need a deep cycle batt use lead acid. More life cycles, more RC/Reserve Capacity and cost less. They are more durable. The only down side is adding water that takes a few min a couple of times a year... No biggie.

Look at pallet jacks,floor scrubbers, submarines, golf carts, etc, all use lead acid batts for good reason.... Just get you the biggest ones you can fit in the box that have enough MC amps.