This issue has been discussed in many forums but my experience hopefully will help someone out. My Helix 10 Mega would shut down when cranking big motor. The unit is on the starting battery and I do not have enough room to put another battery in my boat just for the unit as many have suggested, but for me and many others we have to connect to cranking battery. Many who have this problem have used wire that is too small and may be connecting to the boats fuse or switch panel which also has inferior wiring but this was not my case. I had 10 gauge copper running straight to battery with an inline fuse. It was driving me nuts. I had my battery tested before at my Advance Auto store and it tested good. My triple charger gave me no indication of bad battery. I was in the radar and missile field for almost 40 years and I still know my electronics. My experience was telling me there were a couple of things that could be wrong.......the solenoid on the motor could be going bad and was pulling way too much current when starting motor....my sonar unit was bad...although power problems with sonars are rarely the cause of the unit itself......or as my gut kept telling me my battery was bad. But how could that be.....I had it load tested several times and always showed good. So Saturday I took it down to Advance Auto and had it tested again. Once agin the test showed it was good and the print out they give you tells you the status of the CCA and according to their equipment I had a good battery. I was dreading thinking I was going to have to send my Helix back to HB to be repaired. I had already put the battery back in the boat but I told myself "This battery is bad". So once again I head to get it tested...but this time I went to Auto Zone......the battery tested bad. I then headed back to Advance Auto...the battery tested good....I then went to O'Reilly and it tested bad.....I then headed to a mom and pop service center here in town and the battery tested good. Well unless my unit was bad it had to be the battery. My battery was 2 years old with heavy use on it so I decide to get a new one. Put it in the boat and fished all day Sunday.......killed the KY bass and smallmouth. I used the sonar for a couple of hours before cranking up motor again.....all is fine. My problem is fixed. I went back to the locations that my battery had checked good at and told them that for whatever reason their particular piece of test equipment was lying to them in my case. Could be a number of things causing that. But the lesson here is if you are having a battery tested and you think it is bad have it tested at several places....all you are out is a little time. I am sure the battery had one or more cells bad, or going bad and while the motor always cranked easily these new units are very picky with power. So if all your wiring is good I would take a strong look at the battery. I was dealing with this issue for several weeks and it was driving me nuts...but when you get a battery load tested and it says good you keep looking for other problems.

Regards


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