how riggers affect battery performance

[nelina]

Will be my first trip on the big lakes and I will experience fishing full days more intensively with the riggers than what I normally do. I have 2 batteries on the boat and want to get feedbacks on how it affect batteries performance. It seems that the Scotties are more efficient than others in terms of energy consumption but want to make sure I would have enough juice to start the outboard at the end of the day !

thanks

[jekyll]

A little more information would help us help you.

Are you running other electronics off the batteries: fish finder, VHF, stereo, down probe, refrigerator, GPS, live wells etc.?

Does your kicker have an electrical system that will feed your bus?

Does your fish finder (or GPS) show your bus voltage? If so, set a low voltage warning to warn you.

Can you isolate your batteries through a perko switch (troll with one and save a fully charged battery for start)?

[TrophySeeker]

Well I just had to replace the regulator/rectifier on my 9.9 kicker, so I can tell you that using your electronics and riggers will definately drain your battery pretty quickly. Like most everyone else, I run my FF, chartplotter, Depth Raider, VHF and stereo while trolling; along with the riggers. I made a few trips without a charging system, and my voltage would drop down to about 10V (monitored this on my FF display) after a half day of trolling. As Jekyll mentioned, I do have an A/B/Both battery selector. The main motor wouldn't start on the battery I used trolling, so I had to switch over to the other. My batteries are new group 24 batteries. If you have larger group 27 batteries you may get more time. I would definately recommend a battery switch or a seperate isolated battery for starting the main motor.

[nelina]

I run VHF, GPS and fishfinder + boat standard accessories (livewell/baitwell/bilge pumps, lights) that's about it. No kicker on the boat yet so, I troll with my main motor. I have a perko switch

[nelina]

If I understand, it would be better to plug both riggers on a singlre battery isnt it ?

[jekyll]

If you are trolling with the main engine, you shouldn't have a problem. You can always troll on 1 battery and shut off the second to ensure you always maintain a fresh battery.

Start and run out on both batteries to ensure they are topped off. Switch to 1 battery for the day and save the 2nd in case the trolling battery doesn't have enough snort to start your engine. You can alternate batteries each time you go out to ensure they both get cycled.

Turn off all unecessary loads if you are concerned about battery life. Your engine probably doesn't put out many amps at a troll but should meet the demands for the fish finder and riggers if you start with a charged battery.

[jekyll]

Yes to both riggers on 1 battery but then that battery must always be your trolling battery.

[nelina]

Ok, thanks for infos. Will continue to carry my powerpack also.

I was told that a solar panel unit would be a great addition to maintain the charge.