when do you change boat batteries? trolling and cranking. do you wait till they go bad or do you change before you have a problem on water.. my cranking battery i bought in 2006 and still works but i dont think i want to chance the cranking battery another year.

Just go have them tested if their good your good.

I wait till they go out or get weak-

But I have two batteries in my truck if one craps out

We all have the same problem, waiting until something goes wrong and having to go home. We need someone on here to step-up and offer a deal on swapping out batteries. Mine are 2009 and used very little. I would really like to swap them out or sell them and get new ones before we head to Mexico on Feb. 9th.

Steve you really going to go to the lake? Ha

I had my cranking battery last 11 years. surprised me.

Rudy, I think that you have to give it a name if you keep it that long.

I replace after four years cause they never go bad at a good time. Anything after four years is extra time as far as I am concerned

im ready to go. last year i didnt go much and didnt catch much. im gonna change both this year. not all of us life the easy life and get to fish for a living tho..

If Rudy had done that he would have wasted 7 years of service.. I usually take a jumper cable and after having to jump it a couple of time, I break down and buy a new one. Last one lasted 5 years..

dang I wish mine lasted like yalls. I replace mine once a year. and yes I buy good ones and charge them correctly. I guess to big HB units and all the other gimmicks I think I have to have sucks the life out of em.

plus, usually twice a month at Amistad with my foot never leaving the trolling motor peddle!

ive had good luck with mine , just dont know how much to push it.. i charge mine right after each use with a minkota onboard charger and i guess it works ok...

Batteries (flooded wet cells)don't have an internal time clock, but they have a very predicable amount of discharge/recharge cycles. Could last one boater only several months or same battery could last another many years even if both boaters were taking proper care of. Toward your batteries later life whenever that is for you, they will begin to have a noticable limited discharge ability and be unable to meet your needs.

So answer to your question is just replace them (the cranking batteries)when they are 'getting close' to not crank starting your motor. To quick test, when you are already safely back on the trailer but still in the water after a full day's fishing, occasionally crank start and immediately kill the engine over and over a few times and see if the battery still whirls the engine without slowing down. If ok,you still have spare cranking capacity and life in the battery. (be sure to quickly recharge to avoid sulphation settting up. )

For trolling batteries, always just stop trolling whenever any battery becomes about 50% discharged (about 12.4V). If your day is not over fishing and it is not an unusually windy day requiring lots of trolling,, it's about time to replace the TM batteries with newer deep cycle batteries and with more reserve minutes. If you finish each day's fishing with more than 12.4Volts, your batteries are doing their job fine.

Properly cared for batteries rarely fail; they just have shorter and shorter discharges becoming at some point unusable for their purpose.

ive never checked the voltage of my tm batteries after use. going by that info i dont need batteries at all, at least going by how they performed last year... for future reference how many cranking amps do i need for a 175 merc? gonna check mine tomorrow but the ones ive seen range from 500 to 1000... guess if im fishing amistad there will be a walmart or autozone nearby anyway...thanks for all the input..

FROM MERC'S WEBSITE:

What is the correct battery for the outboard motor?
Note: These are minimum engine specifications. Additional electrical loads from the boat will require larger batteries.

FourStroke Models

9.9/15 & 25
465 Marine Cranking Amps (MCA) or 350 Cold Cranking Amps (CCA)

30/40, 45/50
Operation Above 32°F (0°C) 465 Marine Cranking Amps (MCA) or 350 Cold Cranking AMPS (CCA) Operation Below 32°F (0°C)

1000 Marine Cranking Amps (MCA) or 750 Cold Cranking AMPS (CCA)

75/90
Operation Above 32°F (0°C) 465 Marine Cranking Amps (MCA) or 350 Cold Cranking AMPS (CCA) Operation Below 32°F (0°C)

1000 Marine Cranking Amps (MCA) or 750 Cold Cranking AMPS (CCA) Ampere-Hours (Ah) 70 - 100

2-Stroke Models

6 - 15, 20/25, 30/40, 40/50 & 60
465 Marine Cranking Amps (MCA) or 350 Cold Cranking Amps (CCA)

75 - 125
525 Marine Cranking Amps MCA) or 450 Cold Cranking Amps (CCA)

V-6 Carb/EFI Models

135/200 & 225/250
630 Marine Cranking Amps (MCA) or 490 Cold Cranking Amps (CCA)

OptiMax Models

2.5L/3.0L
1000 Marine Cranking Amps (MCA) or 750 Cold Cranking AMPS (CCA)


What is the correct battery for OptiMax?
1000 Marine Cranking Amps (MCA) or 750-800 Cold Cranking AMPS (CCA)

the way i read that i need 630 marine cranking amps for my 175 merc... guess that 1000 cranking amp would be overkill..

If you have old non-digital era TMs with the 5 position switch, they just slow down as the battery discharges and that tells the boater time to stop trolling and so he usually does not over discharge the batteries too bad.

But if you have newer digital TMs, they will still just run bout full speed well after the battery is 50% discharged and the batteries plates are being harmed. The boater has no idea he is killing his battery life as the digital TM just keeps running below 12 volts.

Walmarts today are kept busy with boaters returning damaged in- warrenty battteries that the boater will say they took good care of, charged every night and never let the water in the cells drop. Then he gets on this forum and bad mouths the maker of the battery.

A battery voltage monitor gauge can quickly pay for itself and prevent killing good TM batteries.


http://www.basspro.com/Battery-Gauge/product/5197/-242823

ive got a digital tm and have never paid attention to how low i run batteries down. i always charge every nite after use.. the only trouble ive ever had was the 27 series i started with and after i switched to the big 29's ive had good performance..

ive got a digital tm and have never paid attention to how low i run batteries down. i always charge every nite after use.. the only trouble ive ever had was the 27 series i started with and after i switched to the big 29's ive had good performance..

I would consider getting about the highest Reserve Minute battery I could afford and fit that had at least 700 MCAs (630 + 10%).

.... and are you a Broncho or a Panther fan?

M O J O!!!

Go to Harbor Freight and buy one of their battery load tester. When in doubt, hook it up and find out how your batteries are doing. Worth the $$$$ and keeps you inform on your equipment. cost is very reasonable.

Problem with using only a load tester is it can only tell you that you already have used up or damaged a good cranking battery. And they don't test a typical boat's dual purpose cranking battery or trolling motor's deep cycles very well or accurately.

Installing a battery gauge and monitoring it regularly will tell you how much and how quickly the battery is going down and when it is needing recharged. That will prevent you from over-discharging and damaging a good battery. And they tell when it is time to replace.

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G O B I G R E D !!!

thanks for the input , even if u go for the wrong team.. im in a mixed marriage so have to live with a little red too..