From our friend Pelican:



Here's a link to a battery load size calculator that some may find useful.

http://www.batterystuff.com/kb/tools/calculator-sizing-a-battery-to-a-load.html

I am currently using (2) 7.5ah batteries to run my fish finder. 2 are necessary to give me enough capacity for a full day of fishing and FF use.

When using multiple batteries, your options are just to disconnect when a battery is drained and reconnect to the fresh battery. Or you can configure your wiring to connect the batteries in parallel as shown in the following diagram and avoid this changeover during the day:

I found this little gadget, used it several times to jump start a car and then decided to use it to power my fish finder! Light, small and easy to remove and charge! Can also charge cell phone too! Fished half a day and barely made a dent In the charge!

^^^^^ genius

If you can afford it, lithium batteries are the way to go for FF and TM batteries. They are much lighter, less toxic, can run in any position, and last much longer; in the long run, they are cheaper

what type of battery for minn kota c230?? what type of charger for the battery?
Thanks

I use a $80 Sea Volt 18pound AGM glass mat battery designed for personal watercraft for the MK C2 30

I use the battery tender jr to charge it.

thanks very much

what kind of battery life on the water? how many hours?

I've never ran it down all the way (mostly paddle and use the TM sparingly).
But, by my calculations, I would get 6 hours with regular use and moderate speed setting and two hours with continuous use at moderate speed setting.

that's great information is a solar charger worth adding ?

I don't have a solar charger, but I've seen it done (youtube) for those that do a lot all day long distance trips.

i was at his house the otehr day and was looking at this, its amazing it weights nothing! and charges phones via usb, and runs the FF, and can jump a car its amazing i want one. sooo much lighter. and useful.

How do you cleanly run the wires for the fish finder using this though seems like those large clamps would be getting in the way or that it would be easy to have the wire come un done. Other than that I like the idea!

Purchased one of these Lithium Ion batteries from Amazon. 8Ah and weighs 1.2 lbs. It hasn't arrived yet, but really looking forward to using it for kayak lights and FF battery backup.




Battery arrived yesterday--Love it--amazingly small and 1.2lbs with four terminals--using it to run FF and LED lights.

Might buy a Lithium battery charger--Battery Tender recommends using a lithium charger (although they do say that standard trickle pulse chargers work, but risk harming the Lithium battery)

Update. Loving the battery tender lithium battery. Running lights + FF with it no problem. Lasts about 15hrs fishing per charge running FF when> 10ft deep and lights before sunrise/at sunset. Charging it with my battery tender jr no problem. The manufacturer said this is ok, but recommends the special lithium battery charger they sell--they don't have those yet at Batteries+ but they are available on Amazon