12 volt batteries & trolling motor

[Panfish Man]

One thing you need to keep in mind is that if you run them parallel, they need to be the same type, size, and age. One weaker battery will pull from the other and vice versa, your set up will not last this way. You will not get equal charge either.

[coombro]

One thing you need to keep in mind is that if you run them parallel, they need to be the same type, size, and age. One weaker battery will pull from the other and vice versa, your set up will not last this way. You will not get equal charge either.

Been noticing ones taking more of a drain than the other here latley. Thats how i came across parallel as my one battery was getting a little age on it. My batteries are not of the same size nor the same age. They still run me all day and then some. Dont seem broke to me so I guess I'm okay to keep going? There are times I will use just one battery. Depends what water I'm headed to. Dont stay on the lakes like I do the rivers.

[kydog]

when you wire them in a parallel circuit make sure when you wire up the trolling motor to hook the positive lead to battery #1 and the negative lead to battery #2, this way your drawing from the batteries equally.
hopes this helps Kydog

[12VoltMan]

I've been charging my two Optimas off one "automatic" charger for years; they've never even come close to running out of power even on the windiest days.

[coombro]

when you wire them in a parallel circuit make sure when you wire up the trolling motor to hook the positive lead to battery #1 and the negative lead to battery #2, this way your drawing from the batteries equally.
hopes this helps Kydog

mine are wired pos to pos neg to neg with a # 4 jumper then a #4 to a fuse block and distributed from there. Trolling motor,depth finder etc. Don't think I should have an issue and I have all the power I ever need, however I'm not much on dc current, but I'm always open for what works best. Would just have to do some rewiring to make it work that way.

[chuckconder]

I'm running my bottom reader and lights off of the same system.... is that the norm?

Chuck

[Duayne]

The reason for separating has to do with possible failure and safety. Batteries are most likely to catastrophically fail during charging. If one opens (which is most likely), it isn't that big of a deal. If one shorts (which is more rare but does happen), it would also short the good battery, which would probably explode. Think of a shorted battery in parallel with a good battery as being a wire directly between the Pos and Neg leads on a good battery.
When I ran like this, I always charged separately, then checked the voltage levels before I hooked mine back up. You can use one of those light testers just as well but a volt meter will tell you if there are any differences in your batteries. It's not a bad idea to have a breaker or fuseable link in there as well just in case a failure happens while in use.

If you have one battery that is draining faster than another, then it is simply older, is more worn, doesn't have the same capacity, or doesn't have the correct levels. As has been stated, it's best to buy the same two batteries at the same time and do everything to both at the same time. Still, one bounce in a boat can cause a set of plates to loosen, so even then you aren't guaranteed to get the same life out of both batteries.
Chuck:
It's fine to run more than one device off of your trolling batteries as long as you have the capacity and wiring for it. Wire everything separately at the batteries, or use heavier gage wire if you run to the dash in a single run.

[zimmy]

Man. I'm kinda scared now! Dont think i'll be jumping across any waves from now on!!
Seriously-thanks. I personally feel better about how mines set up now after reading all the info from everybody. Always worries me when I'm hooking up and running electrical stuff on the boat myself instead of having somebody do it.

[Duayne]

LOL I don't want to seem like a doom and gloom or the sky is falling type of guy but the facts are, batteries will fail. Most go out without a whimper on their own, but you must consider the possibilities when another equally volatile power source is directly in line at the time of failure. The chance of something bad happening are remote, but you can take precautions to minimize damage or injury if you know what the risks are.

I did think of another possibility if one battery is draining faster than another. It could be a corrosive connection or a bad/inefficient cable(s). Added resistance between batteries would lead to one battery discharging faster than another.

[coombro]

good point being the breaker or fuse. I'm very pleased with the results I've had and have my wireing properly fused. Never under estimate the power of a fuse wires melt fast and get super hot last thing u want is an electrical fire in your boat

[chuckconder]

I ran my two batteries in parallel today for the fist time and was very pleased...at one point we had 20mpr winds. i checked the batteries when we arrived at the ramp and they both were 75%. We fished for 61/2 hrs w/ bottom reader running as well.

Chuck

[Embrey]

mine are like this on a 55lb and i probably fish longer(12 plus hrs) and more often than 80% of most people and ive never even noticed them drop at all. except the other day after 13 hours. but i think theyre about done. theyre old and probably time for new.