marine battery

[dogart]

Was out on the water at night on the weekend
and tested out the new nav lights and the sounder
that I installed.
With these on, when I go and trim the motor everythings
dims a fair bit.
Now the battery on the boat is a EXSTA (Ns40ZAL)
made in Malaysia low maint auto battery
about 18cm high 12.5cm wide 18cm long.
Looks pretty new to me.
Do I need to set up two batteries or replace the one thats
there with a propper marine cranking battery?


cheers
wolf

[Robbo_Townsville]

Deep cycle marine battery is the go (Dry Cell).Still think you would get a bit of diming of the lights when you trim.

Sounder should draw bugger all, cheap option if you are concerned is a "D" cell battery operated suction capped white light at the back.I use one when at rest or drifting, rarely have the sounder on when I have found the spot.

[dogart]

Robbo,
the white anchoring light...yep got one of those suction battery
jobs.

cheers
wolf

[Kerry]

That's a very small battery for an outboard so one might expect that. What size outboard?

As a starting battery it certainly doesn't want to be a deep cycle anything. Doesn't really need 2 batteries but would look at going up a little in capacity.

Cheers, Kerry.

[dogart]

Kerry hi,

40hp 4cyl on the back.
I'm sure a larger battery will do the trick.

cheers
wolf

[Kerry]

Small outboards usually don't have a lot of charging capacity and another clue might be to try trimming the motor when running (charging) and also stopped to see if there is any difference.

I'd probably also check some of the connections (especially the earths are clean, tight etc) as one might also expect that hitting the starter with a suss battery might also re-boot the sounder, depending of course on what type of sounder this is.


Cheers, Kerry.

[Robbo_Townsville]

Me again buddy, dual battery is the optimum solution, one cranking and one deep cycle battery.

However if you do your research and run a deep cycle battery that is maybe 20% over what you need you can have the best of both worlds. Car battery is a no go cause it does not handle the vibration and pounding that a marine battery receives.

Deep cycle will not handle too many cranks thou, but then again who does hey!

[Bundaberg_Bandit]

Hi Dogart,

i have a 40HP 4cyl Mariner on the back of mine and just recently purchased a new battery, after ringing three different marine shops they recommended at least a 500CCA.

I run GPS, sounder, radio, lights and bait pump as well so I didn't miss a bargain when a 640CCA came up for the right price

cheers

Bundaberg Bandit

[dogart]

Cheers fishos:D

Have installed new battery, cleaned all terminals
and replaced wire & connectors that needed.
Tested it after installing furuno gp31 GPS that I just got
at an auction for $145. WooHoo! ;D;D
Now with nav lights, interior light, sounder, gps all on
plus a trim and tilt of motor, absolutely no dimming!
And that's fresh off the battery without motor going.

Used the inbuilt voltage meter in the GPS to see what's drawing what.

Everything on 11.9V
without interior light 12.1V
ev'thing without nav lights 12.3V
ev'thing without sounder 12.3V
use T/Tilt when everything is on drops to 11.7V

battery is Excide marine starting battery 520CCA 110RC cost $80

all is so sweet now!

cheers
wolf