Ann-Marie

I solved the problem by mounting the trailer lights and license plate on a 2X4. I used an extension cord that reaches the tow vehicle so there is no wiring attached to the trailer at all. I made an attachment that held it securely to the stern of the boat, or could also be attached to the rear of the trailer if running without the boat. It only takes a few moments to detach it and pop it in the back of the truck before launching the boat, and a few seconds to replace it after hauling out. No water, no corrosion, no popped light bulbs, no waterproofing problems and use the cheapest lamps you can find.

Bad (loose, dirty) connections on the positive or negative battery terminals will give the same symptoms. It wouldn't hurt to remove them, clean thoroughly with a wire brush and tighten.

I have no personal experience with it so I don't have an opinion. I know some of the rejuvenating potions were snake oil but I don't know which they are.

If the battery is dying and you want to maximize life, adding distilled water to a low battery will often kill it. The reason is the acid remaining after the water has been lost over time is concentrated. If you add water, the water will "float" on top of the dense acid and virtually eliminate battery function in the higher areas of the plates. So if trying to save a battery, put just enough water to give about 1/4 inch over the plates rather than fill to the "full" mark. Then give them an overcharge for at least 24 hours. Overcharge means the equalize setting on a good charger that will make the electrolyte bubble. This will mix the acid and the water and distribute it evenly over the plates. I've never used one of the electronic devices that are supposed to restore lost capacity. When they first came out I got a copy of the patent application and read it. To me it sounded like snake oil and male bovine excrement mixed. However some very experienced friends have reported good results with them and I have to respect their feedback. There are some cheap imitations so spending $$ on a good brand name and paying a little more is probably advisable.

Did you get a "starting" battery or a deep cycle battery? Most fishing boats need a deep cycle battery to handle all those extra loads unless they have a separate house load battery so only the engine is on the starting battery. Since the engines are relatively small compared to road vehicles, a deep cycle battery has no trouble starting them. Starting batteries are designed to supply a high current for a short time which is rated as the CCA (Cold Cranking Amps) number. This is nearly useless for fishing applications. Deep cycle batteries are designed for low currents over a longer time which is rated in Amp-hours. This is the number you need to use for selection.

If it is a simple series rheostat it should be possible to add another FIXED resistor in series and provide a switch across it. The switch would become a high/low range switch and the existing speed control would work for each range. To determine what size resistor you need, measure the Resistance of the speed control when set on the lowest speed setting. You then need to purchase a resistor with this ohms that is big enough to handle the current. See if you can measure how much current the motor draws IN THE WATER on the lowest speed. The wattage you need for the new resistor is amps x amps x ohms. Example if it draws 5 amps on low speed now, and the resistance measured at 4 ohms, you would need a 100 Watt resistor. Then wire it in series with the speed 12 volts going to the motor and put a switch in parallel with it to short it out for HIGH range. With the switch on LOW range (off), full speed on your control would be equal to the lowest speed you have now and go down from there until it doesn't run at all.

It depends on how your speed control works. If it is electronic it may need more than 6 volts for the electronics to work. But it can't do any harm to try. Trolling motors cannot be sold that would self destruct on a low battery voltage which is a common condition when batteries run down so try it.

If you get an automatic one, DO NOT store it on your boat. The release pill will slowly deteriorate with humidity and eventually release if you don't replace it. If stored it a drawer it will break the wood and you can't get the drawer open until it is deflated. Don't ask me how I know that!!!

I lived aboard my boat for 14 years. East Coast from Chesapeake to Bahamas.

While that used to be true, with the advent of modern smart chargers in the last 20 years, if they have a maintenance float stage the batteries will not lose water.

Jones Trolling Motor Services in the TX/AR area is highly recommended if that is convenient. http://myweb.cableone.net/jonestrollingmotor/index.html

1. Yes you can use it to just do a charge and remove. 2. No it won't do any damage to the batteries or the charger. 3. The amount of power used with it plugged in all the time is very small, I would guess less than 1 or 2 watts so it would cost roughly 1 cent every 4 days. 4. Not necessarily. Batteries last longer if they remain fully charged. When not on charge they have a self discharge rate which will very slowly discharge them. So long as that self discharge is small and you top the charge off every month or two they will be as good as on a maintenance charge. If you are like me and forget them until next summer then the maintenance charge does extend life because it doesn't forget.

Correct, typically the starting battery will not require a charger so long as you have not been running other equipment off it. Batteries wired in parallel only count as 1 bank so a portable, single output automobile charger would be all you need to make sure the trolling/accessory battery (bank) is fully charged.

Instead of the expense of a 2 or 3 bank charger, use a single bank charger and link the banks together with 1 (or 2 for 3 bank) Combiner100s. You can then use a generic automobile charger on the starting battery to charge all the batteries. Advantages 1. Cost saving. 2. Since it is just as easy to plug in a 12 volt line as a 120 volt line, the charger can stay at home where it is protected from the marine environment and you save the weight, wiring and space. 3. You get added trolling time - for every minute you run the main engine you add about 10 minutes trolling time to the trolling batteries. YMMV. 4. If you need extra charging you can hook the starting battery to your tow vehicle with an RV charging line. This will have all the batteries fully charged by the time you get home. 5. The individual outputs from a multi bank charger are limited to their bank so the charging capacity of the one on the starting battery is only being used to 1 or 2% of its capacity and sitting idle. With a Combiner100, the output from a single bank charger is used to its rated continuous output with nothing sitting idle until all are charged.

The higher the charge the lower temperature they can stand so charging fully then leaving a trickle charge or regular top-ups are helpful. Do not add distilled water before leaving them for the winter. The water is much lighter than the acid and it will stratify and sit on top. This low acid water layer can freeze and do physical damage. If you add distilled water, always do an equalizing charge where you get some bubbling in the liquid to mix the water uniformly with the acid. If they are low on liquid level you would be better off waiting until summer to top them off. The higher acid concentration will lower the freezing temperature and avoid the stratification problem.

They should be fine. You don't take the batteries from your car to bed with you every night and they don't even have a charger on them.

The charger looks good. Great bargain if it works. Diode isolators are being replaced by Combiners because isolators have a built in voltage drop of about 0.7 volts so your battery won't get a full charge.

So long as the bouncing is not damaging the boat structure it will not hurt the battery.

Probably not but check with Jones Trolling Motor Service. http://myweb.cableone.net/jonestrollingmotor/ John is an expert, with massive experience, and very helpful on the phone.

You can leave the batteries in the boat. No one takes their car batteries to bed to keep them warm. Hit them with the charger every month or two. They will not require any water but you should use distilled water. When cruising on our boat for 14 years I used the water from our water maker which is as good as distilled.

There are a number of flaws in this suggestion. It will not give you the correct result. It will perhaps give you a rough guide to maximum possible current under stalled rotor conditions but it will not answer the question of amps drawn at full power. So you could use it for sizing the cable and circuit breaker but it is useless to estimate running time at full load using battery capacity.Technical details for those who aren't quite confused sufficiently:- The faster the motor rotates, the less current it will draw due to "back emf" generated in the rotor. This is the voltage generated by the rotor that gets subtracted from the 12 volt supply. At full speed but no load (in air) the back emf voltage could be as much as 90% or more of the supply voltage so instead of 12 volts available to flow through the Resistance it may be less than 1 volt. As you place a load on the motor, it slows down, produces less back emf, so more voltage is available to flow through the windings and it draws more current to provide power for the load you applied. This is further complicated depending on how the speed control works. In the case of electronic controls, there will be no voltage supplied to the electronics when measuring resistance so the motor will never turn on and you will get an artificially high result.

You need a chart you can remember. I teach my students to remember the word OVA as in over the hill. If you write these letters as a hill you get:- V ------- O A To get the formula for Ohms, Volts or amps just cover that symbol up and the remaining two are the formula. Example to find the ohms in a circuit cover the O and you are left with V/A or volts divided by amps.

Yes, positive to positive, and negative to negative. However I would suggest running JUST on the new battery for one trip to compare capacity. If the new battery performs significantly better that would suggest your first battery was faulty and should be replaced.

The acid, particularly when water has been lost, is much more dense than the replacement water. As the water mixes slowly with the acid, you get stratification with concentrated acid at the bottom and very dilute acid at the top. So in effect you have reduced capacity by 50%, using only the bottom of the plates. If you add a lot of water to a depleted battery, it is time to do an equalization cycle. This means getting the voltage above 16 volts for 15 minutes to cause vigorous gassing. This will stir up the electrolyte and remove the stratification. Despite this advise, it is my experience that you will still end up with diminished capacity in an older battery after adding water. Rather than "fill" the battery it is better to add just enough to cover the top of the plates.

Yes two 12 volt batteries in series running a 24 volt motor will do much better than the same batteries in parallel on a 12 volt motor.