Battery?

[Butch]

I am getting a new boat with livewells and baitwells etc. I'm going to be running a 225 Opti. Should I have 2 batt. for
electronics and starting? (GPS, locator, marine radio, AM/FM radio, etc.) Do I need a charging set-up for this as well? The Opti puts out 65 amps. But, I heard if the Batt. gets below a certain voltage the Computer system on the Opti will not allow starting in favor of saving the electronics?

I'm putting a 36v in front and I wanted to just have 1 3bank in the boat....

Any thoughts?

Butch

[JohnN]

A couple stray thoughts...from what I've read, the Opti uses a lot of those 65 amps for itself. Which wasn't my main thought...sounds like you're considering keeping the cranking battery out of the charging loop with a 3 bank onboard charger devoted to three batteries for the 36v troller. Did you know that Guest makes a 4 bank charger? Might be worth a thought, if you wish to have the cranking battery on the loop and want to avoid having two onboard chargers. Your cranking battery should handle your electronics and the 225 just fine. And to the extent that you're concerned about not being able to start the 225 off the cranking battery sometime due to any reason at all, there are jumper cables that are very compact and designed for that purpose (Cabela's has 'em - small pack, not big cables like you'd use for the car, but they work fine and stow well) to jump off one of your troller batteries, or someone else's boat, etc. Good luck. John