Do you guys that have twin talons or power poles and 2 or 3 graphs connected to your cranking battery have to charge your battery after being out on the lake all day? I fish a lot of small lakes and maybe only run the big motor for 30 minutes. I run 3 depth finders, maybe the radio some and I'll drop the power poles a few times in a day and when I get back to the house and plug the boat in my cranking battery is dang near drained. The other day I went out without putting it on the charger the night before and it wouldn't crank the boat after a few hours on the lake. I had the charging system checked and went ahead and replaced the battery. On saturday I went out with the new battery for about 5 hours. When I plugged the boat in at the house it showed 20% on the on board charger. Maybe that's not a true indication of how much the battery was drained but is was lower than the trolling motor batteries that I ran constantly.

I can go out 2 or 3 full days on my battery before I have to charge it but I've done gotten to where I like to hook the battery charger up to it every time before I go out just to make me feel better

ive had this same issue. i decided to put the radio and trolling motor on a separate battery than the cranking battery. but still charge them every time after going out

I have a designated battery for all electronics and accessories, I do not use the house battery anymore. Two years ago I switched out my 3 bank charger for a 4 bank ac/dc stealth system and can now run multiple days without plugging in, well worth the investment.

Have 2 poles and 2 graphs never had a problem. But I use largest battery I can for cranking, same as trolling batteries. Depending on wattage stereo pulls a lot of juice. May look at getting larger battery if you have smaller one. I use a 29 deep cycle because of the reserve capacity. Car type battery's IMO do not belong in boats. Hope this helps.

I have a switch installed on the cranking battery that I will flip when not using the power poles. So if I'm running the water or fishing deeper than the poles will be useful no point in having them on. Also when I have the boat sitting under the shed those pumps stay on so that's a good reason for a switch. The switch has worked amazingly well for me. May be something you look in to. I had that same problem before once I added the switch never had a problem since. Someone asked me before if the switch will make the pumps lose programming, and it does not.

how do you add the switch?

We put the switch on the positive connection between the post and the hot line to the pumps. It's an automotive switch from harbor freight That cost about $8. Lemme find a picture.

Got the pic. How do you add pics in this forum.

Create an account on photo bucket. Real easy to upload photo to that site.

1 Click on your photo in the photo bucket site you want to post
2 Then right click it and select "copy image url"
3 Then when you select new topic to post something or replying to another post you will see the little icons at the top of the text area
4 Select the enter an image icon
5 Insert non floating image
6 Hit Ctrl V and it will paste that image url from photo bucket into your text window.

If this don't make sense go to the main TFF page. There will be a section there called photos. In there are more instructions.

[img]http://[IMG]http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz241/BMAZ7/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpsa98c3fc7.jpg[/img][/img]

Ok hopefully that works. That's a fair pic of the switch. Can get a better if needed.

I have everything electrical hooked to my cranking battery. Graphs, Talon, aerators, etc will definitely run a battery down over the course of a day if you don't run much. I bought me a jump box from Wal Mart as a backup if I did run the battery down and needed a jump. This is better than an extra battery because you can store it anywhere in the boat unlike a regular battery.

I've got a switch installed on both the accessories and the trolling motor.

I run two Power Poles, aerators, electronics off cranking battery. Battery is a 31 series Trojan. Never a problem. I keep jumper cables in boat for a piece of mind. At the end of a day battery will be discharged about 20 percent and takes about 15 mins to top off charge.

Battery selection can make a difference

Trojan Series 31, Sears Platinum, or if you have a Deka dealer nearby.