if you fill the batteries with to much water it boils over. will that affect the battery and how charged it gets? i had it happen to me once.

Overfilling a battery dilutes the acid and reduces the charge capacity. You should never add water to a battery unless it is fully charged and only use distilled water. It can be fixed, by replacing some of the water with new acid and making all the cells equal using a hydrometer.

I don't think that is quite correct.

If a battery is in good working condition, the liquid that is lost is water.  The acid electrolyte left behind increases in concentration as the original water is converted to hydrogen.  When you add distilled water you are replacing lost water and restoring the original electrolyte density.  Unless liquid has actually been spilled, you should never need to add acid to a battery.

If the battery has been allowed to lose liquid to the top of the plates or lower, you need to avoid stratification.  The water you are adding is much lighter than the acid down in the plates so it will just float on top.  After adding water it is a good idea to overcharge the battery enough to cause bubbles to form, using the equalization setting on your charger if it has one.  These bubbles rising in the electrolyte will stir the liquid up and mix the lighter water with the heavy acid to restore the original concentration.

Thanks for the quicky lesson Ann-Marie, I was wondering myself.  Your responses are always spot-on.  Maybe you could write a battery maintenance article for us.

brgbassmaster, are you getting nervous about your new batteries?  LOL

lol yes i am. i never knew about all the maintenance that goes with these batteries until i started asking about stuff on here lol. and im going fishing for 3 days this weekend. i fixed my depth finder wire. hopefully that was the only wire that was shorting. i looked through the other ones and didnt see anything wrong.

Good luck.  Hope everything goes smooth!