Mattblack wrote:Mick & Crumpet,
Just out of interest, why do you guys use one battery for the motor and one for all the electronics? I just use one battery and if it every runs out I switch over to the spare. I didn't go the VDR switch because I wanted to keep it simple & I have a small power-pack as back up. I also have both batteries on simultaneously when the motors running and have them on trickle/maintenance charge when it's at home.
Am I doing things right, or is there a better way?
im with Mick. I like to have 1 battery that I can always rely on. I do 3 or 4 day trips at a time sometimes and I need to be able to depend on 1 battery if the other goes flat. I used to have both of my batteries set to auto thinking that an overnight trip with just lights on overnight wouldn't drain both batteries. After having to call the coast guard twice within 3 months I realised something wasn't right.
I took my batteries and battery charger to battery world and they told me that my battery charger was faulty. Instead of giving a true reading it was out of whack by 75% then cutting off (100% full batteries were actually only 25% full). I got the guy who services my boat to put in a manual switch so that I could control what battery I wanted to use whether that be battery 1, battery 2 or both at once.
electric anchor, live bait tank, bilge pump, 4 separate sets of lights, sounders, radio, phone chargers all take some juice to run...
I bought a jumpstarter for emergencies which ive used twice due to the faulty battery charger. Since I got set up properly I haven't had an issue since. Great piece of mind I suppose to give yourself the best outcome. Cant believe I ever fished night trips with 1 battery and no jumpstarter when I first started night fishing. Experiences and talking to people who know more than me have made fishing safer and more enjoyable for me and family.