which battery

[rayfish2]

have just purchased a rib which was kept in the south of france for 10 years, 90hrs use, the battery is goosed... not an issue... engine is mariner 90hp do i buy lesuire, heavy duty, new ,second hand, big 110amp or small 85 amp gel, water, acid, i am lost on this subject any feedback please ...

[hadd]

Originally Posted by rayfish2

have just purchased a rib which was kept in the south of france for 10 years, 90hrs use, the battery is goosed... not an issue... engine is mariner 90hp do i buy lesuire, heavy duty, new ,second hand, big 110amp or small 85 amp gel, water, acid, i am lost on this subject any feedback please ...

Hi rayfish i,v got 85amp leisure on mine with 70hp engine, that dose the job ,leisure hold the charge a lot longer than other battery,s i,m told, hope that helps

[rayfish2]

cheers hadd, will be running plotter fishfinder combo, vhf ect, of the 1 batt, more in summer than winter, do you remove yours in the winter...

[davej]

I just use an 80amphr standard flooded cell battery but I think whatever you buy the trick is to look after it, ie keep the clamps clean and tight and the battery always fully charged with a smart charger, then they seem to last for years then.

Perhaps the best type of battery is a AGM and squadron do a great battery that is fitted to some expensive cars.

Dave J

[Erin]

I've always bought basic sealed for life lead acid 'leisure' batteries and never had a problem yet. Make sure they don't get heavily discharged and you should be fine. An 85AH would be fine for your 90.

[rayfish2]

i take it lack of use will discharge a battery over time, do you charge back up to top up, would a small solar charger do this when parked up between trips...

[willk]

I'd say two small ones or one big one. Look after them and the type isn't such an issue.

[rayfish2]

by 1 big one, you thinking of 110 amp lesuire or landrover type battery, or 2 small ones on a switch over system, got plenty of room under console for both....

[Hightower]

I'd be tempted to get two batteries for the double redundancy. Get 55ah ones and use them together for every day use. If you're at sea and using electrics heavily (like I do) for any length of time with the engine off, you can select just one battery knowing that you have a second for starting purposes.

I would go for a combination battery. A deep cycle with high cranking amps. I bought mine off of ebay at a very reasonable price a number of years ago.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NUMAX-MV22MF-1...item483d2994b3

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DURITE-MARINE-...item56403dc236

[Ian M]

Being picky the parameter you should be looking at is CCA, cold cranking amps. This will vary for the battery type, whether it is deep discharge, wet, AGM etc. but should be quoted for whatever battery you go for. Get the CCA requirement for your engine and match or better this figure with whatever battery (batteries) you get. Alternatively, just go for f__king big one
Going for my anorak now..................

[willk]

Originally Posted by rayfish2

by 1 big one, you thinking of 110 amp lesuire or landrover type battery, or 2 small ones on a switch over system, got plenty of room under console for both....

In an ideal world (with one motor) I would have two batteries. One with high CCA for starting and another deep cycle one for the electronics. I would use a fancy switch to prioritise charging to the starting battery, leaving the deep cycle to suck up the pain of running the lekkie while fishing etc.

[John Kennett]

The Mercury/Mariner Outboard Electrical FAQs says for a 90hp you need a minimum of 350 CCA for a 4-stroke or 450 CCA for a 2-stroke.

Unless you are going to be running a lot of auxiliary electrics, and using them for long periods when the engine is off, there's no reason to get a deep cycle battery.

I would just get something straightforward from Halfords and look after the receipt in a safe place. They have a three or four year guarantee and seem to be pretty good at honouring it. Unfortunately they appear to have forgotten to renew their domain name so www.halfords.com is broken at the moment!

[willk]

Originally Posted by John Kennett

Unless you are going to be running a lot of auxiliary electrics, and using them for long periods when the engine is off, there's no reason to get a deep cycle battery.

He's a bass fisher. They lurk about a lot with the donkey off and the lekkie on.

A kettle is murder on a battery

[John Kennett]

OK, definitely a twin battery setup then with a kin huge leisure battery and a 4kw inverter

[Searider]

If your engine is a 2 stroke mariner then the smallest and cheapest battery you can get from halfords will be more than enough. (Probably available much cheaper than halfords though).

Had this on my SR5.4 with a 90hp mariner and gave 3 years good service whilst owned the boat.

90hp 2 stroke can be started by hand.

2 batteries is nice but not really needed.

[rayfish2]

electronics, as wilk says must drain the power source when enginge not running, but its a case mindset, knowing the engine will fire first turn of the key, 20 times a day when drift fishing, the swellies is not the place to praying it will start, welsh bass are harder to catch than their irish relatives, leaning towards 11o amp lesiure batt, and putting 85amp halfords batt to run livebait well at back of rib, whale 9lrt per min drawing 9amps per hr, could switch to this on way back to slipway 20 miles away this i hope will charge for next time...
wilk do you use livebait well or does any ribshers use one,
we should take a few pictures this year and post them, there must be a good few ribshers here, does this set up sound like it would work.....

[willk]

I think (iirc) my sounder module is drawing an amp, the plotter/display a fair bit less. VHF is always on, but not a big draw on rx. My twin rig draws all the lekkie kit juice from one battery and I notice it is always slower to charge than the other side when I top up between trips.

BTW Rayfish2, I do most of my fishing on Ribnet

[Erin]

Originally Posted by willk

BTW Rayfish2, I do most of my fishing on Ribnet

Easier to catch and no EU quota yet .

Back OT, I gave some though to power usage, and reckon the average setup maybe draws 2 or 3 amps when fishing. That's mean your single battery would give you 30hrs or more before being depleted. Can't imaging anyone going out fishing and not at least restarting their engine (recharging batts) for much more than 4 hours or so at a time.

[gohelm]

If you are ready for an investment: I am very happy with the double optima battery setup in my boat as well as single for my car - they are rather expensive but they do not have any fluids inside(reckon that to be a plus in a boat) and they are, in my (limted) experience, very long lasting... (my 4x4 car starts without complaints, even when left in the shed in excess of 3 months without recharging)

[bosun]

'Leisure' type lead acid batteries (known as 'deep cycle') are designed to give a small current for a long time for running lights etc (or your fishfinder) and to be repeatedly recharged, but are not designed to give a high starting current for starting a big engine (but cope with small outboards ok) Normal car/commercial type batteries are designed to give a high starting current but not to discharge slowly over a long period and do not like being run flat and repeatedly recharged.
Hence the suggestion to have one of each if room and funds permit.
For our sailing club ribs with 30/40 hp outboards and no electronics we use the cheapest available car battery (part number 063) and chuck them away after three or four years.
More expensive batteries for serious boating are specially designed to cope with being shaken about and can be gell type or have thicker plates and more room below the plates to prevent the plates shorting.
My bigger boat (yacht not a rib) has a truck battery for starting the engine and a pair of leisure batteries for the lights,plotters etc,with change over/isolation switches for charging.

And now I'll go and wash my mouth out with soap for mentioning sailing and yachts on here........