Re: Dual Battery or Emergency Jump Starter?
I think with your boat size & power usage riazoo an extra battery with a one/both/two/off switch is the way to go, make sure you get a quality switch because they can be prone to failure.
Portable jump starters require maintenance and I can tell you from past experiences with two of them, they have a tendency to fail at the most inopportune times.
The only maintenance they need is to plug them into a wall wart from time to time and after each usage. Mine is now about 10 years old.
these jump start boxes have a very low AH capacity compaired to the say 60 AH of your main battery
The amp/hour capacity doesn't mean anything when it comes to cranking power.
I've never had a jump box stay working over long periods of time.
Maybe that's to do with the quality of the jump box, as I said above mine's on 10 years and still strong.
Batteries on the other hand have lasted years and years and rarely do they outright fail. Usually you get a warning.
I've found that not to be the case with modern batteries I even had one drop dead while I was filling the car with gas once,... not even a click out of it when I went to leave.
another point is you carnt just have the jump box laying around ..if could take to the air in rough conditions or crossing a bar ...so you might as well bolt the second battery down as bother with the jumper....
Are you some sort of jump box hater or something, jump boxes have a place just not in riazoo's boat where two batteries would be better for him.
riazoo search out some of Silvertip's posts for the best advice on connecting & using a dual battery setup.
