Boat lights and others

[tgpfloat]

I have a small 16ft aluminum boat. The boat has a 50 hp Mercury and runs on a remote control. I currently have one starting battery. I would like to run the lights, fish finder and trolling motor from a deep cycle "House" battery.

Does this sound correct? I should not run lights and other things off the starting battery correct?

For simplicity sake I was going to get a battery box, run the deep cycle battery to main shut off switch then to a breaker box and run the lights and other accessories from this battery keeping the starter battery and deep cycle battery totally separate. When the deep cycle wears down i would recharge it with a ac battery charger at my house.

Does this sound like a good plan?

What size wire should I use from the deep cycle to the main battery shut off switch? from the man switch to the breaker box?

Thanks

 

[DJ]

Re: Boat lights and others

Not a bad plan. I've done that before.

The trolling motor is the big draw. Your starting battery will run lights and the fish finder, for days.

 

[Shizzy]

Re: Boat lights and others

X2

I have been running my finder off the same charge I put on the lawn tractor battery in the spring (still reads 12.5 volts) but I only get 2 days worth of trolling off my deep cycle battery. If you get lights that are LED Im sure you could go for some time without using much juice.

 

[mthieme]

Re: Boat lights and others

Two batteries are rarely a bad idea.
Personally, I think it's slight overkill though.

 

[fwmud]

Re: Boat lights and others

2 Batteries for me are a great idea.
Remember this about batteries;
"starting battery- meant for short periods at high amperage.
Deep cycle- long periods of low amp draw.
Use the starter battery for anything else, and you run the risk of being stranded if you drain the battery down.
Not real bad on a lake but real bad if it's late and/or your on the river with no one else around.
I run 3. One main for engine and 2 seperate deep cycles for everything else.
I night fish a lot from evening to next light.

 

[mthieme]

Re: Boat lights and others

Very true, but how much electronics, appliances, etc. can you get on a 12' boat?

 

[gpenton]

Re: Boat lights and others

Hey Guys, I have been recarpeting and setting up my 1972 Fisher and I have a rather interesting battery set-up I plan to try. My much younger and handicapped brother had a Golf Cart full of new 6-volt batteries when something major went wrong with it and it was rendered useless. In completely rewiring this boat, I am using 2 of those 6 volt batteries wired to produce 12 volts. From those I will be running trolling motor, bilge and bait pumps, as well as all lighting. Those batteries should hold charge for all night fishing. I also plan to set them up later on where I can charge them on the engine because I plan to do some pleasure shrimping later on and extended use of lighting will be neccesary. My boat has a compartment under the front deck with space to hold the two large batteries.

 

[Splat]

Re: Boat lights and others

Do you have a recoil start on the motor.

On my little boat I use one battery for everything and have never killed it. I also have a recoil start on the motor just incase I do.

BIll

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Boat lights and others

I hope you realize the small alternator output on your outboard means it would have to run wide open for hours to add any appreciable charge to those large golf car batteries. A trolling motor (assume a 55# thrust) which would draw about 46 amps/hr. Assume you ran it at relatively high setting for three hours. You've sucked 138 amps out of the battery. I think your motor has a 16 amp alternator (give or take a little). You can do the math on how long you need to run the motor to stuff that amount of current back into the battery. Will it help? Certainly! Will it prolong run time significantly? No!