FF wiring to cranking battery

[David Massey]

Hey all,



Long time reader first time poster here. I have a 99 nitro 205 f/s and I am wondering about the battery connections. I purchased a new cranking battery last year and it is very good. My question is; I have two fish finders and a stereo, would it be too much to hook all of that up to the cranking battery or would all three kill it? Now, I never have my stereo on while I am fishing so it shouldn't draw any thing then correct? The guy I bought it from has one ff to the cranking battery and one to the tm batteries along with the stereo. My tm batteries seem to run out quicker than I think they should after a day on the water. I tested the tm batteries and they read good still. What do you all think?



Thank you for your help!!

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Let me be the first to welcome you. SOP is to run all accessories to the cranking battery. Your TM battery(S)will drain with anything else hooked up to them. Give us a little more info on your troller and how many total batts you have and what size they are.



TOXIC

 

[KEVIN WERHAN]

As Toxic said, only other thing is,... if you run your ff's with your trolling

battery, the ff's may act funny because of the change in amperage while using the

troller. The ff's like a good stable voltage supply, which in turn provides good

amperage supply so they can do their job properly.

 

[David Massey]

So do I not need to be concerned about the ff's draining the cranking battery so much that it won't start after I have been way back in the stuff away from the way in? I just don't want to get stuck in an area where there are no other boats coming by. (but I do love to fish in those secret spots however)

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Normally not a problem, the alternator on your big motor will recharge that battery every time you run. Unless you are gonna be on the TM with you accessories running for the better part of the day you shouldn't have a problem. If you are concerned, take a jumper pac with you or just cables and you can jump off your TM battery(s).



TOXIC

 

[Marty Klein]

If all equipment is in A-1 condition, then you should not have power probelms related to running those accessories off the cranking battery. Someone recently mentioned that stereos draw power while off, but shouldn't cause problems during a day on the lake. Assuming that you recharge your cranking battery appropriately I see no issues. I run two finders all day with no issues. I do fire up the radio while fishing, but since I fear running the battery down, I chose to get a solar radio.

 

[David Massey]

sounds good everyone. I appreciate the feedback. I am going to wire everything to my cranking battery and see how it goes this weekend. Getting ready for the Potholes Open here in Washington. Should be a fun tourney.



Thank you all again,



Dave

 

[Jim B]

I would not worry one bit about the fishfinders and running them all day. They draw so little power compared to other accessories. Unless your battery is in poor shape they should be a non issue.



The radio is another thing entirely. If you run the radio long enough it can kill a battery. How long that takes depends on the battery you have. When i had my 882 the group 24 starting battery i could kill in a little better then three hours. I upgraded the starting battery to a group 27 dual purpose battery. With that battery i could fish pretty much all day with the radio on and the motor would still crank. The reserve capacity was over double what the 24 cranking only battery was. With the bigger battery i could also run the well pumps on constant without worry.



To expand on Marty's comment. A stereo will draw power when the its not on but that amount is nominal. Its just to keep the clock and presets just like a car. It would take a really, really long time to drain the battery with a deaw that small. Were talkiing milliamps of current here. The only time the radio will draw full juice is when its turned on.



Ditto on Tox's jumper cable comment. I wont leave shore without them. I have never needed them for my own boat but i have used them tons of times to jump other boats. I got a cheapo set from wal-mart for like 9 bucks and they have come in handy especially for a couple of guys in my club that dont maintain thier stuff well.

 

[STEVEN ZORN]

 

[STEVEN ZORN]

The only problem I see with a sterio is that even when it is off it will have a small drain on your battery due to the presets but if you have a onboard bank charger and hook it up you shouldnt have a problem. I run all my acc. to my cranking batt. and never had a problem with the motor not fireing. It is a good rule of murpheys law to keep a set of cables in the boat for in case s**t happens but that my personal opinion others say dont waste your time. I dont want to be the one stranded 20 miles away from the landing and have to move my tm batt to start my motor. But as they say to each there own

 

[TrepMan]

I need to find my jumpers, as last weekend Eli and I had to help jump another boat who's battery had run dead. Luckily the guy had a pair or jumpers on his boat, so we used them to my Cranking battery and got him going.



Only thing I have found is with my newer fishfinder (Humminbird 798cSI) which draws more power, that when I went to crank the Merc it would drop the voltage to the Humminbird and freeze it, and would give me interfernce when trolling. I rewired that one Humminbird to the trolling battery and no issues on either side.



Trep

 

[STEVEN ZORN]

If your have any electrical knowlege you could run a relays to prevent that. if you have a radio shack buy you they should be able to help find you a water proof relay. all you need is how much amps you ff draws and wire it into the lead. saved me alot of trouble on my old sea nyph that only had one battery and i used to go 3 days solid fishing running everything before i would charge it back up. my nitro havent done it yet cause i have 3 batterys and an onboard charger. just a thought.

 

[Texas Transplant]

I don't have, and won't have a stereo in my fishing boat. Pleasure boat, maybe.



Follow the advice given, and you should be in pretty good shape.



Tex