Trojan Battery Company

They have a distributor search link on this page............Its usually a small local battery shop in your hometown......

Running batteries in parallel will increase your total amphour (runtime) rating as compared to a single battery. However, you can buy a larger battery that will have as much or more amphour capacity.

I use the Trojan SCS225 which has double the capacity of the largest (Size 31) Optima at only slightly more weight

The second good part of the Trojan is that it is a "wet cell" and not a Gel....

In my previous post I mentioned about charging rates. The wet cell can take the rapid charging rates without damage whereas Optima recommends an 8 amp max rate with there batteries. Dont quote me on that but I think thats approximately the number.

Gel batteries tend to have more instant power for cranking (CCA) but less grunt in the long haul (Amphour Capacity).

Trojan has a new line of AGM batteries out now.......the 8D series is like 21x11x8 and weighs in at a hefty 167 lbs..........but comes with a nice 230 c/20 amphour rating. I have a buddy running 3 of these in a 36v setup in a striper boat........he can troll like two weekends straight dragging lines without a recharge. But I always did think he was a bit unstable (mentally) lol.

A single Optima is about 75 amphours at 60lbs, and the Trojan SCS225 is 130 amphours at 66 lbs.

Basically, just do the math.........if two batteries fit better than one and will give you more power go for it.......it really depends on your boat setup. I look at weight, space, and output and find the best fit.

Just be sure you get deepcycle batteries for trolling..........They have thicker plates. You lose a little plate material each time you recharge so deep cycle batteries have more beef in the plates than a cranking battery.

Basically, buy a good battery, keep it charged (always store fully charged), keep it watered, and it will last till the lead in the plates is gone.....

Mine do run down, but freshening them up with the motor keeps them working as long as I want to fish........just touching them up moving from hole to hole helps greatly.

I will try to sketch up my setup so you can understand how the battery switch works..... Basically the switch allows me to switch from the trolling battery to the Main battery or both. The trolling motor is directly wired to the Trolling battery and stays connected to it all the time. I can switch the battery switch to "all" and troll with both batteries if i want........but a jumpstart on the lake is hard to come by and I am still debating the practicality of that emergency pull cord on my 115 4stroke Merc LOL.

I have jumped her off before with an anchor chain and an aluminum seat post in the middle of the night to avoid that option LOL.