no use the cranking battery ,,, And you can put a side mount or you can even mount underneath its kinda hard to mess with without bending over but its out of sight from ppl walking by and if you use an ipod or have a remote its no biggie anyway,,as far as speakers if you dont want to put holes in the boat you can get enclosed boxes and mount ina locker /under seats that type of thing.The holes arent so bad especially if you have quality speakers ,installed in a blank spot on the boat they actually look good,i put one in front of my console,,one under the console,one on the side near the passenger seat and a 10 inch sub in the front of the rod locker i can turn on and off from the amp and remote Tad overkill but it sounds good