Electric Downriggers & Battery

Z

Zpg

Guest
I am upgrading to dual electric downriggers this week 9getting to old and lazy for the manual ones!) and wonder if I have enough battery power. Presently I am running a single deep cycle marine battery of average quality and the only draw is start-up (which is usually immediate)gps/sounder, and marine radio, which is off most of the time. My 5 hp kicker does have a charging cable but I have not bothered to use it as I have not needed it and as I understand the charge is very minimal anyway.

I am wondering if my single battery will be enough for a full day of fishing or should I spend the extra $$ to upgrade to a dual battery system.

regards,
Ray
 
To be honest I run both. I have a dual battery system simply for piece of mind. I run my kicker charging cables to the same battery I run all my electronics off of including downriggers. Nothing worse than fishing all day and then try to turn over the big motor only to hear that wrr wrr wrr of a dead battery. As a side note a single deep cycle is not ideal for most motors due to the amps they draw when they start up. Ideal set up is a cranking battery and a deep cycle. Just my two cents.
 
To be honest I run both. I have a dual battery system simply for piece of mind. I run my kicker charging cables to the same battery I run all my electronics off of including downriggers. Nothing worse than fishing all day and then try to turn over the big motor only to hear that wrr wrr wrr of a dead battery. As a side note a single deep cycle is not ideal for most motors due to the amps they draw when they start up. Ideal set up is a cranking battery and a deep cycle. Just my two cents.
 
quote:

...I am wondering if my single battery will be enough for a full day of fishing or should I spend the extra $$ to upgrade to a dual battery system.

regards,
Ray
Click to expand...


Ray:

You don't say how big your boat is, but... IF you have room, get yourself a second battery: a Marine STARTING battery.

Using a deep-cycle battery to start your motor is going to lead you to potential problems down the road. They are hard on starters because of the way they release their energy. They are designed to release energy slowly, over a long time, such as running lights & radios over-night when there is no charging being done.

A starter motor on the other hand requires a fast release of lots of energy. If it doesn't get it, it starts to get damaged over time.

When you make the change, you will probably notice that when your starting your motor, it will spin faster on the starter, and start quicker becuase of the increased speed of rotation.

Also, hook up your kicker motor so that it is charging whatever battery you are running on. If you get stuck with a dead battery, you can charge it up with the kicker enough to get your big motor started.

Redundancy of systems is a good thing!



Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://ca.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
 
quote:Originally posted by Sushihunter

quote:

...I am wondering if my single battery will be enough for a full day of fishing or should I spend the extra $$ to upgrade to a dual battery system.

regards,
Ray
Click to expand...


Ray:

You don't say how big your boat is, but... IF you have room, get yourself a second battery: a Marine STARTING battery.

Using a deep-cycle battery to start your motor is going to lead you to potential problems down the road. They are hard on starters because of the way they release their energy. They are designed to release energy slowly, over a long time, such as running lights & radios over-night when there is no charging being done.

A starter motor on the other hand requires a fast release of lots of energy. If it doesn't get it, it starts to get damaged over time.

When you make the change, you will probably notice that when your starting your motor, it will spin faster on the starter, and start quicker becuase of the increased speed of rotation.

Also, hook up your kicker motor so that it is charging whatever battery you are running on. If you get stuck with a dead battery, you can charge it up with the kicker enough to get your big motor started.

Redundancy of systems is a good thing!



Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://ca.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
Click to expand...


"Ditto", Also get a selector switch and just run on the battery the kicker is charging. Use the second battery as your backup.
 
quote:
"Ditto", Also get a selector switch and just run on the battery the kicker is charging. Use the second battery as your backup.
Click to expand...

Yes - I left that part out because I just assume that it is standard equipment with a 2 battery system.

Also, the only time you should select both batteries if you are starting. Once the motor is running, switch to battery 1 or 2. It's a good idea to alternate back and forth between the two on each trip to keep a maximum charge in both batteries.

If you have a Lowrance GPS/Sounder, you can overlay data on the screen, put the Voltage in a corner of the screen out of the way. Always a good idea to keep an eye on the voltage.

Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://ca.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
 
Hi Guys

Thanks for the great advice! I have been monitoring my voltage on my Lowrance and never had it drop below 12V but I was thinking that I needed to change the battery anyway and a starter battery was what I had in mind. I was concerned with a 5A draw on both riggers I might run into problems. I think I will do exactly what you recommend and use a switcher for the batteries. I have to pull the gas tank to install the bilge anyway so I might as well do it right while I have the back end open.

Cheers!
 
Get a second battery and switch, even if for just safety and peace of mind.

And going a notch further, I bought a portable starting battery (can't remember what they are called, basically a 700amp battery with the jumper cables on the side) that I keep hidden away. When or if you need it, it will be the best $100 you ever spent. If it doesn't start your motor, it will give enough juice to at least power your VHF to call for help!

And another thing: my new mechanic told me an interesting thing, that may or may not be true. When you have your battery switch on ALL, I assumed the motor is charging both batteries, but apparently not. The batteries are only charged by the alternator if on either 1 or 2. Anyone confirm this?
 
juandesooka, what you have been told doesn't make sense technically. You set up the two batteries in parallel and if the switch is on 1+2 then both are online in parallel. When you run your charging current towards the batteries, however, the current will split in half for each batterie but they both will still get charged - just slower. Unless you have something like a one way regulator in your wiring that would prevent the current to run to one of the batteries which doesn't make any sense to me why somebody would do this...
 
quote:Originally posted by juandesooka

Get a second battery and switch, even if for just safety and peace of mind.

And going a notch further, I bought a portable starting battery (can't remember what they are called, basically a 700amp battery with the jumper cables on the side) that I keep hidden away. When or if you need it, it will be the best $100 you ever spent. If it doesn't start your motor, it will give enough juice to at least power your VHF to call for help!

And another thing: my new mechanic told me an interesting thing, that may or may not be true. When you have your battery switch on ALL, I assumed the motor is charging both batteries, but apparently not. The batteries are only charged by the alternator if on either 1 or 2. Anyone confirm this?
Click to expand...

You shouldn't need to carry a "jump box", if you have two batteries that are maintained properly? But, peace of mind is a good thing!

If your batteries and switch are wired right the alternator will put a charge to both in the "ALL" position. But that is not necessarily a good thing to do! You could end up draining both batteries faster than the alternator can charge them if you are using electric downriggers, etc. Then you would indeed need your jump box! It is better to alternate your switch between batteries, to insure both maintain a charge.

I have three batteries (2 for the house, rigged in parallel). When running my two engines... I have one engine charging one battery and the other charging the two house batteries! When running on one engine (while trolling) the engine is set to charge the house batteries, which run all my electronics, fridge, and freezer. The other battery is turned off and used as a backup. The one alternator will not keep up with the drain on my two house batteries, with my refrigerator, freezer, and downriggers running!</u> This is due to the alternator not being able to keep up with the drain of the two batteries hooked up in parallel, as it is trying to charge both at the same time rather then just one! But that is the way it was rigged from the factory and I have just never changed it. The factory didn’t know I was going to install an additional freezer, electric downriggers, dual GPS, dual sounders, addition radios/TV’s, etc! And… run them all at the same time! When my house batteries get to low I do ran both engines on the house bank to get a faster charge.

In a nut shell… one alternator should only charge one battery at one time! Unless, you have one huge alternator!:)
 
If you are going to install the second battery and a switch, for about $75 more use the Blue Sea Battery Isolator/Combiner switch rather than the basic 2 battery switch. One switch does both functions and then you don't need to be remembering to switch things around to keep your starting battery safe. Your installation will be simple as you already have all your "stuff" connected to your deep cycle battery so all you'll have to do is move your (outboard?) connections to the starting battery and wire in the switch.
 
I use the dual batt system with a guest switch, battery 1 is my starting batt min 700 cca, batt 2 is my deep cycle, when running switch is on both for charge of both. yes it charges both at the same time if the electrical sytem draws from both it has to charge both, trolling with charge system on kicker, sw is set at batt 2. most kicker charge systems only charge at 1 to 3 amps depends on RPM. when wiring in between switch and batterys use battery cable 2/0 min and once all wired-- never never swich batts from any possition while running you will blow the rectifier because of heavey load. and you will know this when you let the smoke out of it, because all electronics have built in smoke when you let it out the unit is no good anymore. starting batterys love and can easlily hande the heavy draw of a starter 200 to 400 amps right now. deep cycle like a constant low drain as Sushi said and can be recharged a 100 times. make sure all conections are very clean and tight esp your ground wires, keep a penny vasolined beside every post of the battery to attract the corrosion that will otherwise be on your battery connections hope this helps
 
Not sure a second battery is really necessary if the only change is going to electric dr's.
Don't know their exact draw, but can't be much, and it is only intermittent.
I'm presuming that your kicker has a charging circuit installed.
I converted this year also, but stuck with the single battery, mostly because on a small boat (16') there isn't a lot of space for an extra battery, switch, and wiring.
That said, I also put a new battery in (a combo starter/deep cycle that West Marine had on sale), but battery type - as long as it's rated for starting, is less important. I change batteries every 3 years anyway. And to err on the side of caution, this year I bought a portable starting battery kit just to be safe, but I doubt I'll ever need it.
 
I have always just used a solenoid attached to both my starting battery and my deepcycle. When the engine is running it charges both batteries and the only thing that is hooked up to the starting battery is the engine. This way it is imposssible to drain the starting battery with downrigger or other electronics. The nice thing with this is that you never have to switch anything it does everything itself. Does this make sense or am I mistaken? I have never had a dead battery in years and sometimes fish everyday for two to three weeks and never had to charge then either.
 
quote:Originally posted by doubletyee

I have always just used a solenoid attached to both my starting battery and my deepcycle. When the engine is running it charges both batteries and the only thing that is hooked up to the starting battery is the engine. This way it is imposssible to drain the starting battery with downrigger or other electronics. The nice thing with this is that you never have to switch anything it does everything itself. Does this make sense or am I mistaken? I have never had a dead battery in years and sometimes fish everyday for two to three weeks and never had to charge then either.
Click to expand...

I think you got it "right"! Just don't overload your system done! :)
 
I love the eliminator portable battery booster unit I got about 5 years ago (for xmas). I keep it in the van and always take it in the boat. Have jumped a few cars with it and one boat adrift in the Strait. I just handed it over and they were running in no time. Lets me relax more when fishing knowing I have it just in case. I also think the built-in light could come in handy if I had running light problems in the dark. I think it can burn the light for 24 hours. Have used it in a pinch to make a call when my cell batt went dead, and could do the same if my hand-held VHF batt ever died. I also use it every camping trip to blow up all four air matresses and tubing tubes and to run the air pump for topping up trailer tires. And no, I don't sell them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Wiring Overhaul
Replies
5
Views
877
wolf
wolf
Fishin
Trophy rewire questions
Replies
19
Views
1K
Fishin
Fishin
Baxter
More Electrical Questions :)
Replies
17
Views
1K
gunnerlove
gunnerlove
smokedvw
Can you setup a solar trickle charger to a blue sea battery switch with dual batteries?
Replies
3
Views
791
Lewy
Lewy
ReelSlim
Scotty Dual Rod Holders
Replies
23
Views
2K
wildthing
wildthing
Back
Top