Ann-Marie

Don't ignore the recommended periodic replacement of the water sensing pill, in the humid atmosphere on a boat they will eventually go off. I had one inflate that was stored in a drawer, it broke out the bottom of the drawer, and was a ***** to get out. Spend the $ for replacements and don't try to save $ like I did.

Need more information. Are you sitting in the boat when you feel this, or standing beside it in a trailer, or sitting on a dock? Are you feeling it on the hull? If sitting in the boat, what else are you touching at the time? Do you feel it once as you touch or release, or is it continuous while you are in contact? You should not be feeling anything however it is possible to "feel" the 12 volt charging voltages under certain conditions. For safety sake, I would make sure you are using a grounded outlet to supply the charger and the charger uses a 3 pin connector too. If the charger has a metal case that is grounded it may help to have this case electrically in contact with the hull.

Agree, clean or replace all the fuel filters. Double check all connections for somewhere a small amount of air might be creeping in on the suction side.

Even with matched batteries, discharging too much is suicide to a 36 volt battery. For the technical details if your interested, picture this circuit. You have 18 cells wired in series with the motor when it is running. Each cell can be regarded as a 2 volt source and some internal resistance that is normally very low. The motor in the circuit is a zero volt source and also some internal resistance normally higher. As the battery discharges the resistance in the cells increases so some of the voltage gets lost in these and your output voltage drops. The resistance of the motor does not increase. If you discharge too much and the resistance of the weakest cell gets to be too high, for example equal to the motor resistance, then it will have a voltage across the resistance equal to the voltage across the motor, say 16 volts. So if the voltage across the lowest cell resistance got to 16 volts that would put 14 volts REVERSED across the cell which will rapidly destroy it. This can happen in 12 volt batteries too but the reverse cell voltage is limited to about 8 volts and the damage occurs slower. So don't be tempted to squeeze that last run out of the batteries, that is what kills them.

In my experience with Harbor Freight that is frequently true.

So long as there are no loads on the battery it should be able to maintain it. My experience with Harbor Freight is their products are the lowest common denominator. They are very cheap and you get what you pay for if you're lucky.

Except for the environmental aspect, give me a 2 stroke any day. Worst mistake I ever made was replacing my 1985 Mercury with a new Honda 4 stroke. I used the 2 stroke on our dinghy for 12 years, nearly every day and not once did it let me down. I would have no fear doing a 15 mile trip in the out islands of the Bahamas. But the 4 stroke was a nightmare. Heavy, hard to start, fuel problems, carburettor valves sticking, overheating (Wasps built nests in the cooling fins), difficult to maintain. I was lucky to get one trip without problems.

It could also be the check valve right on the primer inlet.

Are you sure it is a fuel problem? If these problems go away after it cools down it sounds like a thermal problem. Other things to check:- Ignition - could be getting weak as the temperature rises. Friction - could be a bearing problem as temperature rises, when it stalls check that it still rotates free and is not bound up. Thermal shutdown - Locate/replace the high temperature shut off thermostat, it may be faulty and have a marginal connection at operating temperature that interrupts the ignition for a while then opens up although this would normally also trigger an audio alarm. Oil pressure - depending on your engine it may have an oil pressure monitor that shuts it down.

In the case in question, however, "safety devices" and a good working circuit breaker would not have prevented the fire. When there is a dirty connection in a plug the current required to cause the fire is less than the current the trolling motor draws so the circuit breaker would not trip.

Agree, a bad battery will never get up to full voltage so the charger will keep on putting out its maximum current trying to get it up to voltage. This will create a lot of heat but should not damage the charger. The smell you detected was probably from the bad battery boiling away.

If your charger is otherwise working OK and these batteries boil when on charge, they are DEAD. I hope you didn't pay $$ for them or you got ripped off.

It sounds like it is shutting down on high temperature. That is why it works fine at home after it cools. It could be actual high temperature or a faulty high temperature thermostat shutoff. You should locate the thermostat(s), remove them and have them tested. I put a meter across them and drop them in a pot of boiling water. They should open or close. However some modern engines may use a thermisitor and digital high temperature detection. If that is the case you may have to get them checked professionally or just try a new replacement. Check your raw water flow. Clear any input filters. Make sure water is flowing through with your muffler. Check for mud dauber wasps filling up the inviting spaces between the air cooling fins on the block and heads. Honda engines are notorious for this. They have an additional air filter that looks like a perfect honeycomb wasp condominium. Make sure you have some fly-screen mesh stuck in the engine cover air intake hole(s).

Thanks Way2, right on, saved me all that typing. The RV industry has kits for tow vehicles to charge travel trailer batteries. These have the appropriate hardware, controls and current limit protection.

It is important that all cells in the battery are matched so if you find you have to replace acid, use a hydrometer to match the density fairly closely. Try and match it to the existing density in cells that didn't leak. Then before the first use, do an equalizing charge using a charger that will get it up to about 15 volts for 30 minutes. This will make bubbles in the acid that rise and stir it up to prevent stratification of the acid/water you add. After equalizing I would again check the density of the cells to check they are fairly close.

Are you using it for starting or a trolling battery? Starting batteries are selected for good CCA. I've no idea what Marine Cranking Amps means but it is perhaps Warm Cranking Amps. So for starting higher CCA gives more short term amps for starting an engine. But if you are using it for a trolling motor battery, CCA is bad. To get high CCA they have a large surface area and thin plates. For trolling you don't need the amps but you want thick plates so they will last for hours. The specification you are looking for in trolling batteries is AMP-HOURS. In general deep cycle batteries will have lower CCA and more amp-hours but try to find the actual specification. "Dual=purpose" suggests it is a compromise and may not be the best for trolling but still should be OK for starting and instrument loads.

If it is an older style charger, and your description suggests it is, you need to measure the voltage after it has fully charged the batteries. If this voltage is above about 13.6 volts, it is not a "smart" charger and you will have to turn it off when charging is finished so you don't cause your batteries to lose liquid.

Well you need a new battery and it should be in a strap down battery box. As for the paint peeling you need to do some detective work to find the cause. Was it just a bad paint job in the first place? Is this where the battery is stored - may be due to acid fumes from the leak?. Does it need more ventilation to stop condensation? There are protective paints for aluminum but they will require careful preparation. The worst thing you can do is put paint over the top of a corrosive surface so it can no longer dry out. If it is just bad paint and the metal is not being attacked, just cleaning like you suggest could be sufficient.

It is probably not the old lube. I had perpetual problems until I replaced the tube with a stainless steel one. No more sticky steering. In fact I had to tighten the friction clutch thing it got so loose.

I'm not sure what they mean by "sensor coil". It may be a coil that picks up crankshaft rotation for triggering electronic ignition. You could even dream up other things that could be called this. Typically a STATOR coil is used for an alternator to generate charging current for the battery. If the symptoms included no battery charging then this would be a clue. So they may have been confused and you may be correct that it is the stator coil they meant but before you replace that some more diagnosis should be done. You can test the stator coil fairly easily. With the starting battery disconnected put a volt meter across the stater cables going to the motor. Set the meter on a low voltage range, start with a 10 volt setting and lower it if necessary. Then turn the engine over a little by hand, it doesn't have to go a full revolution. If the stator AND THE DIODES are good the meter should show some activity. If it doesn't show any response at all, the stator AND/OR the diodes could be bad.

"Tapering Charge" could be a way to make a dumb charger sound smarter than it is. Once upon a time (20+ years or more ago) all chargers were "tapering charge". This means they put out a fixed voltage with current limiting and the battery charged to that voltage. There are some problems with this type of charging:- 1. The current flowing into the battery gets less and less as it gets closer to full charge ("tapering"). 2. The time it takes to charge is extended due to the tapering and less and less current going into it. 3. To compensate for the slow charging they increase the voltage to a level that can be detrimental to the battery. 4. So you have to turn off the charger once the battery is charged so you don't boil it or create bubbles in a gel battery. Back in "those" days all batteries were lead acid so a little boiling actually did good. Those voltages can damage modern batteries. "Smart" battery chargers use a higher voltage at first to force a charge in while the battery voltage is low and the high voltage won't harm it. They then lower the voltage as the battery gets to a voltage where the forcing voltage could harm it. And finally once it is fully charged the voltage is lowered to a resting level that will maintain full charge without stressing the battery. So if you use your "tapering" charger you should monitor battery voltage. If you are charging lead-acid, disconnect the battery charger when the voltage gets around 14.8 to 15 volts. If you are charging any other type do not allow the voltage to remain above 14.2 for more than a few minutes.

If you are going to the trouble of replacing fuse holders, think about doing it right and putting in a circuit breaker. Apart from having to carry spare fuses, the advantages are you can easily disable the motor and get going after an accidental short. Typically you will need a 50 amp DC circuit breaker.

It has more to do with how long the run is from your fishing spot(s) back to the trailer rather than type of battery. If you are running everything from a single battery you have a balancing act to how much power you can use against how much charge your alternator puts out and how long you run it. You can do the math, measure load currents, make estimates of duty cycle %, alternator output, running time etc., but the simplest way is to try it and monitor battery voltage carefully as you gain experience. But one way or another you will probably need a half way decent shore power charger. The ones Walmart sells with the digital readout for about $80 are excellent smart chargers.

Don't get a starting battery, go for a deep cycle battery if you can find one that is small enough. Deep cycle batteries will have more than sufficient amps to start that motor and they will give you better support for instruments, accessories etc.

TMI answer. Starting batteries need a lot of amps to start an engine so they have a very large surface area of plates but to fit them in that makes them thinner. More push, less guts. Deep cycle batteries don't need a large surface area to provide high CCA (cold cranking amps) so the space is used to provide thicker plates which will last longer before they get used up and need recharging. More guts, less push. Since outboard motors are (typically) much smaller than vehicle engines, deep cycle batteries are able to start them without needing the extra amps of a vehicle battery so there is no reason not to use deep cycle batteries everywhere on your boat. Look for Amp-Hour capacity when selecting a battery, take no notice of the CCA which really only applies to larger vehicles. Higher CCA means shorter running time for your trolling motor.