Boat Batteries

thcri · Jul 4, 2005

Ok, I am now on my 4th battery for my boat in 7 years.. What is the best place to buy a good battery. I have to have a heavy duty battery for the electronics on my boat. The engine is a 5.7l EFI and if I don't have a heavy duty battery the computer gets goofed up. Some one told me to go to Sam's club? Any other suggestions for a good battery and along with it maybe I should buy a good battery tender also.

I also noticed dry cell batteries for marine? Is this a good battery? Also in my tractor I have a gel battery?? Give the goods guys!

murph

JimR · Jul 4, 2005

Any heavy duty battery should work fine with your boat. I always put the highest amperage battery that I could find that would fit in my boats when I had one. I never had a problem with them not running the fish finder. I didn't have any other electronics on it other than a radio.

Bully · Jul 4, 2005

I have a Searay 190 with a 5.7L I always used high cranking amp. battery 1000cca. never lets me down. The deep cycle batteries never seem to last.

GaryE · Jul 4, 2005

<font color="blue"> I also noticed dry cell batteries for marine? Is this a good battery? </font>

Murph,

Dry cell / gel cells are great for applications where heavy "pounding" is common. I used gel cells for my offshore boating in Florida, Never had a problem with them, where as I could not keep regular lead acid batteries in my boat for over a year. Like with tractors, it is all in what you use them for.

Gary

Bayoucritter · Jul 5, 2005

I have done a fair amount of bass tournament fishing over the years. I found I come out ahead just buying a high amp economy brand battery. Some guys spend a fortune on fancy batteries which do not last much longer than the cheap ones. The most important thing I do is keep the batteries charged. I fully charge the night before I fish, as soon as I return home, and every couple weeks during gaps between fishing.

daedong · Jul 5, 2005

murph

Buy yourself one of these and you will never look back

ronjhall · Jul 5, 2005

I have had good luck with Interstate batteries in my boat.
<font color="blue"> and along with it maybe I should buy a good battery tender also. </font>
I'm making a assumption that you do not have a charger on your boat. I good quality charger like a Guest will keep it charged. I replace all 4 batteries in my boat last year. They were in the boat for six seasons.

Moon · Jul 5, 2005

Over the last couple of years I switched to Sears Die Hard Marine batteries. I have a 7.3L, stereo, depth finder, etc... and carry two batteries at all times. So far so good with the die hards, and they're not that expensive.

hazmat · Jul 5, 2005

Murph we need some more information - what kind of boat is it? How do you "use" it - trailered, in water etc, how often? Do you use a trolling motor, do you spend the night on the boat?

My parent's have a 38' sailboat. It has 3 group 24 deep cycle batteries in 2 banks. Bank 1 is 2 batteries in parallel and is used all the time. Bank 2 is one battery and is a backup if Bank 1 fails to start the motor.

The ideal system has a deep cycle battery(s) for the "house" loads - trolling motor, cabin lights etc, and a "standard" battery with high cranking amps for starting the motor.

Deep cycle batterys should be sized such that they are discharged a maximum of 50% before being recharged - requires some math to figure out amp-hours of your "appliances".

Starting batterys are not designed to be discharged at all - they should not have any load on them other than starting the motor - then the alternator immediately charges them.

There are also "Dual use" batteries that are a hybrid starter/deep cycle style - they do neither real well, but are cheaper than 2 batteries....

Long story short - if you need electricity w/o the motor running - add a "house" bank of deep cycle battery(s). If you are simply starting the motor, put a charger on the battery to keep it topped off in-between uses.

Hope that helps.

Here is some more information west marine product advisor batteries

thcri · Jul 5, 2005

Boat is just a 21 foot run a bout with an open bow. It sits at my cabin except for the week-ends which I use it if time permits. My problem I think is the winter. Radio pulls battery down along with maybe some other items and even putting a trickle charger on it once a month it still goes down. I typically will disconnect it from the boat in the winter and try and put a trickle charger on it but maybe I should just leave it hooked up and put a tender on it. I don't do any fishing or anything like that to need a deep cycle. Just to start and run around. Typical ski-ing and things like that.

murph