Battery question

riceman · Post by **riceman** » Wed Oct 05, 2022 4:52 am

I have one starter and 3 deep cycle batteries in my boat. The starter and one deep cycle will not take a charge. I have a switch to jump the motor from the deep cycles and get it started which I did. My question - if the 2 deep cycles are fully charged can I start and run the boat a few miles with another jump to get to my trailer. When I called service at boat dealer my answer was "it depends". Any experience with this? Thanks.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Wed Oct 05, 2022 5:39 am

Not sure about your Specific issues, but when you get tired of chasing battery problems and spending money in the shop trying to fix them….. Check out NextGen lithium. I made the switch about 2 years ago and haven’t had to worry since! One 22v cranking battery ran my 4 graphs including live scope and mega 360. And one 36v ran my Ultrex from sun up to sun down. It seems expensive initially but saves in the long run. 12 year warranty. Veteran owned. Tournament rewards program

Check them out.

https://nextgenlithium.com/?utm_source= ... gJK3fD_BwE

monte300 · Post by **monte300** » Wed Oct 05, 2022 6:11 am

My experience has been that if one of your deep cycle batteries fails you’re screwed. If one battery out of three is bad being hooked in series they will all perform at the level of the worst battery.

BIG DADDY BLUE RANGER · Wed Oct 05, 2022 6:28 am

I’m not an expert but if you can get your big motor jumpstarted then it should run just fine off the alternator. Your two good trolling batteries Will have nothing to do with keeping the engine running once started, but then again it is possible your engine may have some other electrical requirement and won’t run if the battery won’t charge. So your dealers answer of maybe is probably correct and you won’t know for sure until you try it yourself . Also, A lot of those jump switches are wired incorrectly, they need to be wired to the trolling battery that has the negative lead coming off it…. Not the positive side or the one in the middle so make sure it’s done right

I’ll second the recommendation for NextGen Lithium . I made the switch last month and so far I’m very impressed, with the stealth charge on the run I haven’t even needed to charge my boat at home going on 10 trips now

If you’re looking for cheap temporary solution batteries I have some used ones posted for sale in the classifieds is that have at least a year of life left in them

riceman · Post by **riceman** » Thu Oct 06, 2022 6:15 pm

Thanks for the replies. I was able to jump it with the 2 good deep cycles then run on alternator. Got it loaded and parked. The NextGen Lithium sounds like a possibility. What on board chargers are used. Also, will they sit for 6 months without any problems, parked with no plug in for charger.

Javelinman · Post by **Javelinman** » Thu Oct 06, 2022 9:18 pm

Lithium deep cycles is a good idea. I’ve been running Lithiumpro for a year now. But if you don’t have a couple grand right now there are ways to test batteries if they are standard wet cells. A simple hydrometer can tell you if you have a dead cell. A battery with a dead cell won’t take a charge. A hydrometer reading should be between 1275-1300.if you have a bad battery at least you’ll know it’s not your charger. The problem with wet cells is they never seem to go bad together which means buying 2 or 3 in your case because one goes bad. I’m a fan of lithium. Very happy with my lithium pros. Don’t know much about Nextgen,they seem to have a good rep,but be careful shopping for lithium. There’s a lot of crap batteries out there. Don’t jump on the cheapest price.