Battery Powering Downriggers

[nedarb2]

I just have a deep cycle battery in my tin boat i pull out and charge every couple trips which was powering just my scotty's and yesterday i also hooked my new sounder up to it (which was previously on a seperate battery)
2 questions i guess - how long should i expect my battery to be able to power my sounder & riggers? I know it will be mostly dependent on how much up and down the riggers are doing.. any guesses though?
Other thing is, what voltage will the downriggers stop working at? The finder has a built in voltometer (which is why i now wired it into the downrigger battery) so i can atleast keep an eye on the juice remaining.
Thanks

 

[scott craven]

I take it your outboard has no charging system ?

 

[nedarb2]

no it doesnt... next one will haha

 

[TenMile]

nedarb, take a look at this excellent post from Charlie. It lays out the draw of all his equipment including his sounder and riggers.

http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12574&whichpage=1

Sounder looks to draw about 1.67amps per hour (not much), but the riggers draw 10amps each. Over 8 hours of fishing, hard to say how many amps your riggers will use -- depends how many times you raise them -- but over an 8 hour day of fishing maybe guess that they'd be used for 1 hour total use. So over the day you'd have used about 20Ah from the 2 riggers and about 10Ah from the sounder. Deep cycle battery (when new) can store about 100Ah so looks like it would be flat in about 3 days of usage.

TenMile
<'((((><

 

[The Fish Assassin]

quote:Originally posted by TenMile

nedarb, take a look at this excellent post from Charlie. It lays out the draw of all his equipment including his sounder and riggers.

http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12574&whichpage=1

Sounder looks to draw about 1.67amps per hour (not much), but the riggers draw 10amps each. Over 8 hours of fishing, hard to say how many amps your riggers will use -- depends how many times you raise them -- but over an 8 hour day of fishing maybe guess that they'd be used for 1 hour total use. So over the day you'd have used about 20Ah from the 2 riggers and about 10Ah from the sounder. Deep cycle battery (when new) can store about 100Ah so looks like it would be flat in about 3 days of usage.

TenMile
<'((((><

Ya that sounds about right.

Take only what you need.

 

[Charlie]

quote:Originally posted by nedarb2

2 questions i guess - how long should i expect my battery to be able to power my sounder & riggers? I know it will be mostly dependent on how much up and down the riggers are doing.. any guesses though?

Depends on the size of your battery? A Scotty will pull approximately 8.7 Amps at 12.6 Volts each, times 2 = 17.4 Amps? With a 15 pound ball? The lower the voltage, the more amps will be pulled. My GPS pulls around 1.2 Amps X 8 hours fising = 9.6 Amps, but it also has a 600 Watt transducer attached to it. I really haven't researched if that effects the draw? It very well could be pulling more? Add up your total estimated use and divide it by your total rated battery Amp hours? Most batteries are rated by using 20 Amps per hour for the rated Amps. A 100 AH battery, will produce 20 Amps for 100 hours. Your battery could be ratted different?

Power consumption should be listed in your owners manual. If you don't have that you can go to the manufacturer's website!

quote:Other thing is, what voltage will the downriggers stop working at? The finder has a built in voltometer (which is why i now wired it into the downrigger battery) so i can atleast keep an eye on the juice remaining.
Thanks

The Scotty's are rated at 13.8 Volts, you will have to contact them for the voltage they stop working at, but my guess would be between 10 and 12 Volts, probably closer to the 10 volt number?

When you are looking at that voltmeter, keep in mind that is how many volts the battery is producing... NOT the status of the battery charge, even though without a charge going into it, that will certainly give you a good idea? When you hold the up button on the downrigger the voltmeter will show a significant drop until the button is released!

 

[The Fish Assassin]

You might be able to extend the life of it with a solar battery charger?

Take only what you need.

 

[Last Chance]

It has to be a good solar charger or you have to disconnect it when not using it. Many of the cheaper ones will sit there and boil your batteries once charged.

Last Chance Fishing Adventures

www.lastchancefishingadventures.com
www.swiftsurebank.com

 

[nedarb2]

Thanks guys I appreciate all the responses

 

[The Fish Assassin]

quote:It has to be a good solar charger or you have to disconnect it when not using it. Many of the cheaper ones will sit there and boil your batteries once charged.

All you need is a charge contol. This one is $40 at Can tire.

"This unit is very easy to hook up - seriously just seconds. Seems to do the job. Features could be better, but obviously that would make it cost more. I would have liked volt and amp meters, and a manual override to start charging again, or adjustable restart voltage setting. It stops charging at something like 14 volts, but then doesn't start again until it's down to 13 or so volts."

Take only what you need.