Attention wannabe

I'm gonna swallow my pride and ask your opinion, being that you are the demigod of all things electrical in boats.:rolleyes: I've got a 24 volt trolling motor with a 1 year old battery and a 2 year old battery. I believe the older battery is about shot. I can only fish 4 hours at the most on a windy day, compared to 11 when they were new. Should I replace both batteries? High end ( optimax-Trojan) or wal-mart, replace every year el-cheapos? Someone told me that you should replace both batteries, even if only one is bad. Anybody else who wants to chime in , please do so. Thanks

Replace both and bring me the one year old one for my camper? Heck I'll even give you my old one for the exchange.......Bud.

Heheheh, say I'm pretty and I'll tell you the answer.

Wannabe...

Pretty...darn silly. Now I also expect you to research prices to find me the best deal.... and while you're at it... I've got two broken transducers, you'll need to come up here and replace 'em for me!

OK, OK, here's the deal.

You really ought to replace both. The deal is, the two wired together will seek to equalize themselves, so the weaker one will draw current from the better one and rob you of juice in the best case or wear out the stronger one quick in the worst case.

Now, having said that, when I bought my boat it came with a 12V motor and the batt was a higher end one only a year old with little use. I bought a NAPA one and wired for 24V and I'm still going strong. I just couldn't see tossing a really good batt just to add another one.

As far as which ones go, Whew, who really knows. I've heard good and bad out of every brand out there. I've had good luck with flooded Interestates, but keep in mind that on a good week, I'll get 2 4 hour trips in. Every once in a while, I'll get in an all day trip, but safe to say that I don't tax my batteries even close to what they are capable of. Still, I had a trip this year that it was really blowing to beat the band and ended up killing my batts in 4 hours (having to run at 70% for the whole trip). Personally, I'd go with Interstates if you could find them because I couldn't justify the cost of the Blue tops. If you're a serious guy doing 3 to 5 trips every week and trolling to boot, you might could justify the expense though. The biggest thing with a batt is to maintain it (distilled water if needed), keep it clean and charge it to full charge with a good quality charger as soon as you possibly can when you get off the water.

One other piece of advice is to get the biggest honkin battery you can possibley shoe horn into the space, group 31s if possible. There is no substitute for size and capacity when it comes to batts. I'm stuck with 27s no matter what I do and had to really work to get those in there.

Wannabe...

OK, one other thing. On the Wal-Marts. Well, best I can tell, they have about a 30% failure rate, which is truly awful, however, assuming you get one/two that are OK out of the box, you can't argue with the warranty on it, plus, if you travel, you won't have any trouble getting them replaced no matter where you are. One school of thought is that, for the price, if you get a full year out of them and replace them under warranty, you're money ahead and you get 2 solid years or more out of a set, which for a troller, is about all you can really expect out of flooded cell. For my level of fishing, I'd probably get more out of a set than the average guy would.

As long as it's not a huge hassle to swap them in and out of the boat, that is not a bad option for ya. For me, it would be an ordeal. So I opt for the next grade up. My local NAPA guy can get Interstates, so I go with those. Still, I get tempted on the price at WM. Prolly will have to make that call again this summer when I get to trolling.

Wannabe...

Prices, heck I think there's a place in Memphis that sells scratch and dent Interstates that you can pick up and save on the freight. I know there's a place in Jackson somewhere out in Pearl that does that. If you can find out where that is, that'll be your best price.

You can't break a transducer in a way I can't fix it. Take me fishing and put me on a limit and as long as you keep the Diet Coke flowing, I'll fix it for ya free of charge.

Wannabe...

There is an Interstate Battery outlet thingy here in starkville. You can pick up remanufactured deep cycle marine batteries for $30. The only difference is they have a 90 day warranty. But they are the ones that normally cost $130 or so. At that price, I figure even if it goes bad I'll still come out ahead if I buy a new one every year. I bought one, and it works awesome. I can get a couple all-day trips in on one charge. Very strong batt. If yall are coming through here you might think about picking one up. I think it is the smartest money I've spent on my boat.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Wannabe...

Prices, heck I think there's a place in Memphis that sells scratch and dent Interstates that you can pick up and save on the freight. I know there's a place in Jackson somewhere out in Pearl that does that. If you can find out where that is, that'll be your best price.

You can't break a transducer in a way I can't fix it. Take me fishing and put me on a limit and as long as you keep the Diet Coke flowing, I'll fix it for ya free of charge.

Wannabe...

---

Interstate was what I was planning on getting. I've tried epoxy on the ducers...didn't hold. Let me know when ya wanna come, I've caught limits last three or four days out. As for diet coke.... There is always a twelve pack on ice in my boat... may need more ifn you come. Thanks for the input.

My little ole .02 is this. What ever you buy (better is best), charge it full as soon after you fish as you can. Not using them, and letting them stay only 50/60% charged after use is not good on them. It's kinda like my wife's check book -- if it gets down below a certin point and I don't refill it, it just don't work the way it should. heehee

Wannabe --------- stay out of it!!!!!!!

I have an on board charger, allways plug in as soon as I get in. The problem is ( if you can call it a problem) that I fish 3 to 5 days a week, sunup to near dark.

Frier, that on-board charger is Shaweeeeet. Gonna get one installed when I get home from Enid this week end. But, yea, the key is plug it in as soon as you can.

I need to take a battery back to Wally world myself. Got a pair of them 2 years ago and on 12 volt (have a 12/24 system) the 12 volt on high is not very good at all. Guess I COULD check to see if it's low on water. LOL I meant to check the other day but got sidetracked. Guess batteries still need to be filled with water and not something else these days. It's got the caps for refilling so it should be one to refill and not maintenance free

DonDon, you better use distilled water or you'll ruin those batts. Tap water will kill one in just a little bit.

Fee-lay, since you always have Diet Coke on board, I guess I'll have to start being nicer to you. Well, either that or just make sure I don't run out. :) If you really fish that much and for that long when you go, get the group 31s in the best battery you can find. It'll pay in the long run.

Wannabe...

I just had to pop fer a couple of 'em other day - I've always SWORE
by Delco Voyagers, been using them since '89 or so...

anyways I've been hearin all kinda smack-talk about them lately,
saying they aren't sealed, maintenance free anymore, aren't any good,
yada yada - had me all drawed up.

For the record, went down to
Union Auto in Tupelo, they have 'em, and they are still sealed batteries.
I upgraded from the 27's I've always used to 29's this time, and they
were like $80 a piece. Can't predict the future on whether they'll last
as good as they have in the past for me, but I'm gonna find out.

The ones I replaced were bought Fall of '05, ran strong up till just lately,
lost a cell or something in one of them - it started self-discharging (fast) with
nothing hooked to it. My .02 ;)

That place that sells the scratch and dent interstates is on the west end of brooks road in south memphis. Don't know the name of the shop, but if you are heading west on brooks it is 2-3 miles down past the EP intersection. I have a wally world max battery on my boat. Only got 2 years out of the interstate that came with the boat???

I bought 2 of the class 29 Batteries from BPS they are STRONG pulling I fished 11 hours the other day in the wind and at dark my 67 lb Motorguide would still dang near flip me offa the front deck if it was facing the wrong way. Now the starting battery i bought from them is sealed and has last very well for the last 4 years only had the trolling batteries a year and they are not sealed .. but so far so good,

I got the interststes now, I have had them for just 2 years but they will last about 3 days in the wind. They start getting a bit weak on that third day.

I still say my offer is better :)

I guess I'm the lucky one...I have 2 group 31's from walmart that have been going strong for 2 years....