Accessory Battery?

[JoeFD]

Do you all run an accessory battery for electronics and such or just wire to your cranking battery? I have always just wired to my cranking battery but have has situations where my battery dies with a full day on the water (Granted the last two have been junk after a few months) I am running three graphs constantly. Do you think i need another battery dedicated for electronics? If i do this, what would you buy for a battery? Also, could i just connect them in parallel and charge with the three bank charger or would i have to buy a four bank?

Thanks!

 

[FishingwithRusty]

ive gone to running 2 cranking batteries run in parallel to power all my electronics(two Helix's 12s, a helix 10 and a 1199, HB 360, hydrowave, stereo, talons), the rest of my boat and start my opti

 

[JoeFD]

In parallel, can you charge them off the same leg of the charger? I have a three bank and all spoken for...seems like that would work. I would assume I can get away with a smaller (and cheaper) battery than the 800CCA i just got for the main?

 

[FishingwithRusty]

I charge each battery separately. It's my understanding that they should be the same size when connected parallel

 

[Chick68]

I was having battery problems also and some guys told me about the Batteries Plus x2 battery and it solved all my issue's.. they are not about $400 but will run everything all day long !!

 

[silvertalon]

Find a 31 series AGM batterry (Academy), they run about 250 with tax. It will run everything (I run 2/3 pumps continuous in summer and 3/4 Lowrance locators all day ). After years of running down ordinary crank batteries this has been a great solution. Even with a big Optimax v6 that requires 650 cca to start, I've never had an issue for 2 years now. Yes, you can wire 1 charger bank to 2 batteries in series but it can over work that 1 bank which could be an issue eventually. I'd guess you can swap out all 3 charging banks on a 6 month basis to distribute charging hours evenly. BTW, I still carry a lightweight jumper/booster just in case. There's nothing like fishing a TX in confidence knowing that (from prior experience), you won't find yourself stranded with a box full of nice fish.

 

[JoeFD]

Thanks for the great information. This site is an incredible resource!!