Thread: Boat Batt. Issues...HELP

Originally Posted by Dixie Boy

Brand new Optima d34m. Going with the d31M and see if that works. How do you charge the batt for the depthfinder, 3 bank charger or relay the cranking batt to the depth batt & let the altinator charge them both?

Your question is unclear.

If you add a separate "electronics" battery and bridge( parallel) this battery with the start battery, you only increase the amp hour rating. Note that if you decide to do this, you should match batteries of the same type and ratings.

Originally Posted by Scrapper

canepole is right...there is a "bridger" that will tie both batteries together and allow the engine to charge both at the same time...although this can put more strain on your stator/rectifier...are you using wingnuts?? You would be suprised and how a set of stainless hexhead nuts and lock washers can help you if you only hand tighten with wingnuts on your posts. A simple multimeter set to DC can check your output from your stator on your battery...should be around 13 or so at idle...put it on muffs or idle in the water to check that...as said before though check all those connections...if one is bad or the ground is bad or coroded you will lose to much juice when trying to start and it will go off...can be a real pain when you gotta find satilittes again on the gps

I agree about the hex nuts. A loose connection will cause a dc voltage loss and some arcing, which can cause corrosion at an accelerated rate.

Wingnuts belong in Washington.