This is long but I need help.

This topic has 9 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 4 months ago by Jay.

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February 7, 2009 at 11:11 pm #297122

Jay
Participant

Ok first off I will tell you that I am running 2 Lowrance LCX 28s and a HB 1197. Now here is what has happened. I went to the lake today and fished for a couple of hours and my cranking battery would not start the motor. To “SAVE” the day I moved the motor leads to a trolling battery and fished on. So next spot I fished for about 3 hours with just my front LCX 28 on and all others off. I thought that all the units were draining the battery. Sat down to crank and the trolling batteries were low. Here are the two things I have come up with and I do not know if either is correct. One is it possible that my motor is pulling current all the time. It maybe as simple as a bad ignition switch. Two all the cells in my batteries are bad. They are 9 months old and have been used, but maintained. I do not think that the 3 units would drain the battery by themselves. I have been wrong once in life this would be the second time. Next I could have drained the cranking battery to low for the onboard charger to fully charge it. If this is true why would my trolling batteries also drain off so quickly. I am trying to think of all possibilities and I cant come up with anything that makes good since. Oh yeah I have a 250 Proxs motor. Let me know if I left anything off that may help. Thanks Jay

February 7, 2009 at 11:30 pm #297123

Fishspanker
Participant

Lot of other things run off the cranking battery. Livewells, nav lights, etc. Were any of them on?

February 7, 2009 at 11:53 pm #297124

Jay
Participant

Negative.

February 8, 2009 at 12:53 am #297125

Basstar
Participant

OBC, you may be surprised to learn that these new, color, large screen electronics draw a TON of current. I know that a lot of anglers get by fine running their T/M using their cranking battery as one of the T/M batteries and if the battery is large enough and all other conditions are OK, that is probably a fine set-up. Personally, I like to have a cranking battery separate from the T/M system as I have a lot of trouble pushing a boat fast enough to pop the clutch and get it to start. I want BCBs professional opinion as they have forgotten more than I will ever know, but it sounds to me like you are just drawing too much current from your set-up. Good luck with your Cat and best wishes solving your problem.

February 8, 2009 at 1:13 am #297126

Bass Cat Boats
Keymaster

Oh by the way the day was not a total loss. I still got to go and fish today even if the batteries gave me fits. Here is my first of 09 a monster for sure.

February 8, 2009 at 4:56 am #297127

Bass Cat Boats
Keymaster

See the battery suggestions in the FAQ archive. You are simply using a lot of current on most applications. The livewells, LCRs, parasitic voltage drains and more knock one down hard. There is a post on this board about it somewhere from testing we did back in June also. When we tested back in June we trashed several brands new name brand batteries that jsut did not have the long term umphff for the load. Though it is also possible you are draining the battery from something in the engine. Last week we had a dealer on another brand of boat and a low use engine. We gave them a hand on researching the same issue on a battery that would not go three days off a charger. We found a 46.7 milliamps drain. When combined with all the other parasitic drains it was in the 100 milliamp drain. Which is a lot on the battery. If he used it fishing he would knock it down fast with the drain, thus the three days. You should test your milliamp drain with a voltmeter in line if you are concerned, or have your dealer check it if you are within warranty. Otherwise we found batteries to be way sub standard from the needs for most tournament boats. That is in the archive or in the history somewhere here. You can search at the top of the page for that information. BCB

February 8, 2009 at 3:27 pm #297128

Jay
Participant

Thanks BCB! I have out a regular charger on the batteries one at a time. I am going to try the theory that I have drained them to low for the onboard to get them back to par. IF that is not the case I will go into the process of finding out if the batteries are bad or if I have to much on them. I will replace them with a recomennded battery. The problem can not hide forever. I will contact my dealer as well. They are a little ride from me so I would like to eliminate all user error before I make the trip.

February 8, 2009 at 5:28 pm #297129

wildcat
Participant

were did u mount the hb 1197

February 8, 2009 at 6:59 pm #297130

Jay
Participant

Sherm from Sherms Marine came up with the location on Stg93s Cougar and I followed suit. It works out well there too.

February 8, 2009 at 7:00 pm #297131

Jay
Participant

I have some more detailed pics if you would like to see them. Just let me know.
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