Starter battery

[Da Noc]

Have a question about the connections on my starter battery. I have a trojan starting battery for my 150 Vmax and my t8 kicker. I also have a Lowrance 6500 GPS and Lowrance locator hooked up to the same battery. And all the light and bilges are on the starter battery. I removed the battery At the end of the year and placed it in my basement and put it on the charger. It was almost dead like 25%%. I let it charge for a long time and it only charged to 75 percent. I just bought the boat and this is how the person before me had it hooked up that way. Do you think the battery is just going bad or do think having all the electronics hooked up to that battery never let it charge to full power while running and trolling. My kicker is a electric start. So I asume that it has an alternator. But trolling at slow speeds is that enough to charge the battery. I have a 24 volt bow mount, that my marine band radio and am fm radio is hooked up to Do you think I should take some of the electronics and put them on the bow batterys? Any advice will help thank you.

[rpieske]

I think I'd put in the largest capacity starting battery I could fit in the space. I also would hook an automatic charger for the starting battery and charge your trolling batteries off one auto charger and your starting battery off the newly installed charger every time you come in off the water.

I had the same problem and found that the livewells and auto bilge pumps when it rained at night could drain the battery too much. The above solution worked for me.

[Grampa_Joe]

Did you pop off the caps and see if the fluid levels are just above the plates in the battery? I have had a few (like 1 out of 100) bad Trojan batteries, but usually it's something simple. Also, there will be something stamped into the top of one of your posts, that's a year code. What is it?

Joe

[boat nut]

Like Grampa Joe states, incorrect electrolyte level is likely the most common reason for poor battery performance, including a refusal to fully charge. Is your V-max an EFI or HPDI? The HPDI requires quite a bit more capacity, and when combined with hours of fishing/livewells/gps/sonar use, may require external charging on a regular basis. So, after your fishing day, the outboard's alternator slams the discharged battery hard to try to fully recharge it, causing some off gassing, and eventually reducing the electrolyte levels. I would recommend to everyone to check the levels in each cell monthly and (after charging) top off (about 3/16 below the cell well indicator) as required with distilled water. You may also want to consider an onboard charger with an additional output to charge your cranking battery. Nothing makes batteries last longer than regular maintenance and keeping them fully charged.

[Da Noc]

Thanks for the replys guys, I checked the fluid levels on the starter battery, and it was quite low it was about 1/3rd of the way down in 4 out of the 6 cells., I put it on the charger hopefully it works. Grampa Joe, the letters stamped on the positive terminal is E31 and G5 on the negative terminal. And to boat nut, I have an EFI. Do you think having the low fluid level would cause it to drain down to 25 percent, and that my motor aternators just couldnt charge it fully. And normally should a t8 kicker trolling at slow speed all day enough to keep the battery fully charged. Thanks again you guys you really helped me

[Grampa_Joe]

I'll look up the year on that. What did you fill the battery with!?

Joe

[Da Noc]

I filled the battery with distiled water.

[ffishman]

I have on-board charger on my boat. After EVERY trip, I plug them in and bring them back up to full charge. I easily get 5+ years out of my batteries.