Well... that didn't work!

[dougw1515]

I've been having a problem with fish dying in the livewell. Additionally the efforts to keep the fish alive ran me headlong into just about killing the cranking battery. In an effort to solve those problems I moved all connections except the engine leads from the cranking battery to the trolling motor battery that supplies the ground for the trolling motor. Well that didn't work either 'cause at the end of the day that battery was dead and with no way to recharge it - so were 5 fish that would have won a divisional championship for me.

I have a loaner boat I don't want to make wholesale changes to it. I have a 225 Pro XS that requires a 1000amp cranking capacity. Can I safely connect the grp. 29 trolling motor battery that supplies the ground to the system in parallel with the engine cranking battery. If so... will the engine now supply a charge to both batteries and maintain my required 1000 cranking amps? I'm thinking the answer is "yes" to both questions but having been wrong before... Figured I'd better ask folks a tad smarter than me on these issues.

I have one more divisional championship(different division) to fish. It's on Amistad and the fish are bigger and the water is hotter. I desperately need some way to keep fish alive in a poorly designed Gambler livewell system. As I stated earlier... .this is a loaner boat. It's a 2007 Gambler intimidator and there is absolutely no room to add an additional battery - even on a temporary basis. Adding battery switches is not an option. I am now being called the "Executioner" and the boat..."Eliminator".... This is the last tournament I'll fish out of this boat as mine, after 8 months, is "Supposed" to be ready by the end of this week.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Well... that didn't work!

Lets get after this one item at a time. Are the fish dying because of dead batteries or do they die whether or not the aeration system is working? If it is dead batteries, that's one issue. If it is due to poor aearation that's another. Batteries are buckets of electricity and big buckets hold more than small ones so when it comes to batteries, bigger is better. Adding a portable 12 volt aeration unit(s) may help only if battery power is available. But here goes with some thoughts.

1) Do you have a livewell timer? If not - you need to add one.
2) Check the current draw of the livewell pump. (Ammeter in series with positive lead). If the pump is drawing too much current replace it.
3) Do you have a 24 volt trolling motor?
4) You will not charge the troller battery by just connecting the grounds of the starting and troller battery. The Positive cable must be connected as well. HOWEVER, that does not good because this essentially places the troller and starting battery in parallel. While it will increase pump run time it may leave you with a dead starting battery. Besides, unless the engine has a large alternator output, the troller battery would only get a small charge unless some very long, high speed runs were made.
5) My suggestion is to put everything back the way it was and use the livewell timer. It will reduce pump run time by an amount equal to 30 seconds run time, 3 minutes off, rather than constantly running hte pump which can kill a battery.
6) If you don't like the #5 option, add another battery and an ACR with a "combine" feature. The engine charges the start battery first and when topped off switches to the auxiliary. Anything on the axuliary battery cannot draw from the start battery unless you switch to "COMBINE". Yes -- I know you have no room but make some.
7) Portable aeration units may help as well as adding ice (slowly) to the livewell.

 

[jtexas]

Re: Well... that didn't work!

for one last tournament, you can't lash a battery box to the deck somewhere?

The ice is a seriously good idea if you have space for a cooler. In this heat, keeping it out of the sun will make a huge difference in how long the ice lasts.

BTW, I been hearing about Mexican pirates harrassing tournament fishermen so don't take a chance on draining your cranking battery -- you need to be able to skedaddle if you see an unknown boat approaching.

 

[dougw1515]

Re: Well... that didn't work!

for one last tournament, you can't lash a battery box to the deck somewhere?

The ice is a seriously good idea if you have space for a cooler. In this heat, keeping it out of the sun will make a huge difference in how long the ice lasts.

BTW, I been hearing about Mexican pirates harrassing tournament fishermen so don't take a chance on draining your cranking battery -- you need to be able to skedaddle if you see an unknown boat approaching.

Yeah... we had 2 tournaments cancelled on Falcon because of the B/S going on there. Although I'm hearing rumors of similar activities on Amistad there's been no factual verifiable reports of it. Still... I'm staying on the U.S. side.



Back to the livewell issue. If you have never seen the rigging compartment on a Gambler intimidator you'll have to trust me on this one - There ain't no room and no way to make room - at all. I moved all connections from the cranking battery because... If you have a winning sack and can't get back to the ramp it really doesn't matter.

I made a mmm.mmmm.....mmmmis.... misssss.... mistake(dang that was hard to say!) moving everything to the trolling battery. And I made a mistake running them continous the last hour of the day. That killed the trolling batter and with no way to recharge it - fish died as did my electronics, ability to lift the trim tabs and the hyd. jackplate. Soooo... I'm freezing about 10 bottles of water from quarts to pints, taking a 94qt cooler(not on the boat) filled with ice and the frozen bottles. Then a smaller cooler that will handle 6 frozen bottles plus a bag of ice. Then... I'll put some additional frozen bottles in the cooler on the boat and that, I'm hoping, will adress the issue of dead fish. Each livewell has a 30gal. capacity and the water temps I hit this weekend ranged from 85 in the morning to 92 in the afternoon. I would think I could safely add a 1qt. frozen bottle to the livewells without danger of shocking the fish by lowering the livewell temps too low. I will be capable of refreezing the bottles where I'm staying. Soooo... we'll see if the grand plan works. That's assuming I catch any fish at all....

Thanks to all for the help/suggestions!