Well, I do carry "jumper cables" and also have, a "dedicated starting battery", a "portable generator", and a "75 amp battery charger"

I really don't want to be dead in the water! At my age... I have been down the road, too many times!

Great advice! I am not going to use the BOTH setting for the batteries as I do believe doing so will draw down a good battery. I do recall one time the downriggers slowing right down and stopping (off the West Coast) and I remember thinking, oh-oh we're out of juice - this is not good. However when I went to start the main motor, it fired right up...lots of juice...all because the downriggers drained one battery leaving one good one to start the engine. I thought maybe I was "helping" by running out to my fishing holes on the BOTH position but I have heard the charging system on older motors does not produce a lot so I would not have been doing either battery justice. I also got a little lazy hooking my trickle charger up to just one battery in my driveway and turning the switch to BOTH which would have "equalized" the batteries to a low level. I'll stick with trickle charging one battery at a time. I'm finding this important to think through for me as I only have the one big motor....gosh I wish I could afford twin 100's with a high thrust Yamaha 9.8hp with charging kit. That would be the best of everything. Yeah - dream on!
Thanks to the admin and moderator for starting up this site. Looks like the readership is growing quickly.
DD

I'll push start you Charlie.LOL.Its amazing how many guys show up to fish out on the coast that haven't done anything to be ready.See them every year rushing over to Breakers Marine for a new Battery,plugs,etc.Dan

This has been very educational for me. I was so wrong on the way I used to travel with my other boat. Now I know

Thank you all who contributed the info on this thread. Just goes to show ya, "you can teach an old dog new tricks"

Knota-Kanu

When I bought my boat last year, it already had the actuator set up. It seems that the downriggers were running on one battery and the rest of my electrical/main motor sits on the other battery. I typically just leave mine on both... that way it can be charged while running the big motor. If it hasn't been used for a month, I do like you suggested and trickle charge both batteries.... just to be sure

The most charge you can be putting to the batteries is 17 amps, while trolling with your main and depending on the alternator 40/45 amps while running approximately 3000 rpms. If you are trolling with a 9.9 kicker, it produces 6 amps? If you have Scotty downriggers, they draw 8 amps, each?

If you have access to a charger, you will probably never have a problem! In fact, if you go to Cannon's website and download their manual, you will see Cannon recommend NOT running more than 2 downriggers off of one battery. Running off 2 batteries creates less drain on the one and is better for the batteries.

If you plan to fish the WCVI, without shore power available you will probably have a dead batteries within 4 days of trolling with the downriggers? I have a friend that has his wired the same way and "just like clockwork", it takes him 3 ½ days to call and tell me he is dead in the water! I have a tow rope I bought... just for him, as I found towing him is easier than try to either jump or pass a batteries from one boat, to the other.

Oh BTW, there is nothing worse than having a USCG certified Captain setting at a dock, in his band new 42 ft power yacht, with no shore power and dead batteries, because the "factory" wired the batteries wrong? And, he didn't even think about checking that, but boy that electric blender sure did work good, for a long time!

Good luck!

I take all the power off the down-stream side of the switch, and run on one battery only.
I have a charging system on my kicker which I installed myself, and have very few problems with dead batteries. Prior to installing the kicker charging system, I had dead batteries all the time, and sometimes when it sure was`nt convenient.
I switch from 1 to 2, every once in a while to keep both batteries charged.
Lure-washer

I use my 45hp mariner to troll off of. I think I do fine cus I am never into fish Not entirely true, but I don't go out for long periods of time, and to this point, I have not had my boat on the west coast. I typically run for 6hour stints on the inside and I have not had a problem yet.

I do post thanks for the useful info though. I think I will doublecheck my setup to confirm what you said.

Cheers,

Leischvost

Thank you guys for all this info. I am fairly new to this fishing thing and go out to Barkley Sound frequently. I have always used the selector switch on both thinking that I was doing good. I will change that. Just had electric downriggers installed. Hopefully the put them on by selector switch. My kicker does not have a charging system on it. Are they hard to install. It is a 9.9 merc. Thanks again for this website. It has been a huge help. I am reading everything and taking it all in

Zuke 17.5
My kicker is a Mercury 9.9, 4 stroke 1998 model.
I installed the charging unit myself in a very short time. very easy to do.
It came with complete instructions and the motor was set up for the installation.
I can`t remember what it cost, but I think it was in the range of $100 $150 range.
Probably one of the better investments I have made in the fishing game.
Lure-washer