dan hufferd Posted January 17, 2019 Share Posted January 17, 2019 I did it when I bought my Motor Guide. My old battery was on it's last leg (3 or 4 yrs old), I put a new one with it, it was fine for a couple years. I would do it, you will be fine, just keep track of the old one. fishinwrench 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrGiggles Posted January 17, 2019 Author Share Posted January 17, 2019 This thread has taken a very strange segue... One that I sure wasn't expecting. Thanks all for the advice. Not even sure if I'll be getting this motor, I'll know more in a few days. dan hufferd 1 -Austin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishinwrench Posted January 17, 2019 Share Posted January 17, 2019 11 minutes ago, MrGiggles said: a very strange segue... A "segue" yes, but "very strange"? We are still talking batteries ! Hell, some threads start off about fishing line and end up being a discussion about shoveling snow. Why does THIS ONE gotta be "strange"? JestersHK and Daryk Campbell Sr 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harps Posted January 17, 2019 Share Posted January 17, 2019 Wrench, what's the procedure to test a battery and know when it's time to replace? My main battery is over 2 years old now, and the little one....who knows? All it does is power the depth-finder and lights. BTW, my old car (you know which one) has a battery that is probably 10-12 years old now, and tires that may be close to 18. I think this is the year to replace both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishinwrench Posted January 17, 2019 Share Posted January 17, 2019 31 minutes ago, Harps said: Wrench, what's the procedure to test a battery and know when it's time to replace? My main battery is over 2 years old now, and the little one....who knows? All it does is power the depth-finder and lights. BTW, my old car (you know which one) has a battery that is probably 10-12 years old now, and tires that may be close to 18. I think this is the year to replace both. There are several ways you can determine the quality of a battery using nothing but a digital voltmeter. One way is to hook up a 10amp automatic charger and a voltmeter to the battery. Note the voltage, then plug in the charger and observe how it cycles. The auto charger should run it up to around 15v then shut down until voltage falls back to 13 or a little less, then it will kick back on and run it up to 15 again (over and over). The length of time those cycles take to shift should gradually decrease until the lower voltage stabilizes above 12.8ish. If that doesn't happen then your battery is on it's last leg. Once fully charged unhook the charger and let it sit overnight. Voltage tomorrow should be 12.8 or above. If it is then turn something on for 10-20 seconds to put a load on it (crank the engine, or in the case of deep cycles... turn the trolling motor on high) and observe how the voltage drops down, and then recovers after the load has been turned off. The value of that will give you an idea of what you can expect the battery to do, and how long you can expect it to last. Never go by the ammeter on the battery charger because that tells you nothing about the condition of the battery. It can actually be misleading because a bad battery will show as FULLY CHARGED when the reality is that it simply will not accept any more charge. Make sense? JestersHK, tho1mas and Daryk Campbell Sr 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan hufferd Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 6 hours ago, fishinwrench said: A "segue" yes, but "very strange"? We are still talking batteries ! Hell, some threads start off about fishing line and end up being a discussion about shoveling snow. Why does THIS ONE gotta be "strange"? Yeah it is getting strange around here lately, i guess some of us are board😁 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrGiggles Posted January 18, 2019 Author Share Posted January 18, 2019 15 minutes ago, dan hufferd said: Yeah it is getting strange around here lately, i guess some of us are board😁 Yeah, I think these green carp guys get a little stir crazy when they haven't thrown a topwater in a while. Daryk Campbell Sr and dan hufferd 2 -Austin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan hufferd Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 9 hours ago, MrGiggles said: Yeah, I think these green carp guys get a little stir crazy when they haven't thrown a topwater in a while. The Wrench probably can't handle the cold, (due to age and all) wishes he could be out catching winter bass instead of working on all those Johnsons and Evinrudes. Chain pulled, 😁 BilletHead 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
top_dollar Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 Ive bought super cheapos (walmart everstart i think) for as long as I can remember and replaced them most every year. Never had any problems with dead batteries or my TM and my motorguide has been on that boat since at least 1998. I do the same with my starter battery for the outboard. Ive always felt it was more reliable than buying pricey batteries and waiting for a failure. fishinwrench 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishinwrench Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 7 hours ago, dan hufferd said: The Wrench probably can't handle the cold, (due to age and all) wishes he could be out catching winter bass instead of working on all those Johnsons and Evinrudes. Chain pulled, 😁 Nothing but 4 Mercs and 1 Nissan here now. I haven't been out since Thanksgiving, but I got 5 Benjamin's that say I can go out tomorrow in the sleet and rain and beat ya by more than a pound. Wanna Bet? 😁 dan hufferd 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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