Small battery for duckboat?

Steve Sanford

Steve Sanford

Well-known member
All~

I have not yet decided whether to go with electric start in my Sneakbox. I will be using portable nav lights but do have a 9.9 Evinrude with electric start. I definitely do NOT want the weight of a full-size (car) battery in my boat. I am thinking either lawn tractor or PWC (Jetski) size. It seems a PWC battery - being Marine/Deep Cycle - would be the way to go.

Has anyone done this? Any reason(s) not to?

Thanks for your ideas.

SJS

 
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Steve, if you decide to go with a U-1 sized, (7.25" X 5.20" X 8.25", about 22-24 pounds, garden tractor sized), I have a plastic battery box for you.

I think that sized battery would serve you well. I have used one with a 55 pound thrust electric motor and it pushed my little boat for over a mile.

Jon
 
PWC battery would definitely be the way to go if you went that route. However I've never been a fan of electric start motors on small duck boats. A well maintained 9.9 will start very easily with a pull string. I'd imagine a pull start motor would be smaller and lighter and then you have no wires to get tangled in. Plus the weight and space savings of not having a battery.
 
I'm another fan of keeping it simple and reducing weight (that will eventually have to be dragged off a bank) in my duck boats. That being said my Roy boat was setup for electric start, running lights, etc. when I bought it and I proceeded to add a few more bells and whistles like interior lights and a LED light bar. I'm using a 30 lb, 26 Ah Enersys UPS battery, similar to a PWC battery, in the boat and it does a great job of running everything I need it to, including starting the motor.
 
I would go with the electric start if you have it. I used a small lawn mower battery for my 20hp 4 stroke this season and also ran a spot light and interior lights off the same battery. It makes things easier when you have layers of clothes on in the morning and just hit the button and have it start up.
 
I used to use a lawnmower battery from Walmart to power the lights/gps on my Broadbill. They seemed to need replaced every season, so I bought a much more expensive deep cycle wheelchair battery the same size from Battery plus- it has lasted over 5 years in the BB2 doing the same duty and thus was the cheaper solution overall. I have now swapped the Broadbill to a 12v 7ah sealed lead acid battery and LED lights to save even more weight and space. It powers the GPS and nav lights just fine for several outings, and has held up over several years. Of course my motors are pull start only.

-Bill
 
One other point to consider, nearly all of the stated amperage output values are measured at near WOT rpm levels; many older outboards' don't put out much amperage. Your owner's manual will hopefully state an rpm level at which the max. output amperage value is generated at for the powerhead you have. Now that so many bass, walleye, and salmon trollers run kicker motors in the 8-15 hp range, the charging systems on these newer powerheads in this h.P. range have been beefed-up considerably.

Mr. Burruss, your Walmart lawnmower battery was likely a cranking battery. These batteries will only remain functional through X numbers of draw-down/recharge cycles before the plates saturate to a level where they cannot be electro-chemically cleared via a charge cycle, far fewer than a deep-cycle battery. Cranking batteries are best coupled with a charging system, driven off of your powerhead. The battery which is likely the type used in a wheelchair is a deep-cycle battery; with a different lead plate array that enables it to be drawn down repeatedly to full, or near-full discharge level, and then recharged.
 
I used a Walmart lawn tractor battery in my old boat. It worked OK, as Bill noted, they don't seem to last very long though. I got about 4 years out of mine before they wouldn't hold a charge. I think the bouncing gets them.
PWC batteries are made to be jolted around, I bet it would last longer.
 
Best battery I were found was from the medical industry. These batteries were back-up batteries for baby incubators. I had a guy who worked for a medical company that was contracted to go into hospitals and replace the batteries annually. The batteries probably were never used in a years time and they worked great for trolling motors and such. Here is a link: http://www.batteryclerk.com/products/airborne-life-support-neonatal-transport-life-12v-24ah-medical-battery.html. They weigh under 20 pounds. I was getting mine for free so the price was perfect. It might be worth calling around to a couple local medical equipment contractors and seeing if you can get lucky.


Dave
 
Steve, with your talents and ability to think outside the box, I'm surprised you haven't come up with some solar powered decoy racks to provide the juice for your electric start. With the inverter made of a decoy of the pursued bird of the day. Lol

Best - Paul
 
I'm surprised you haven't come up with some solar powered decoy racks to provide the juice for your electric start.
Click to expand...

I may be wrong, but I believe all the juice generated by the "solar panel decoy racks" is dedicated to running the spinning wing decoy! :>) :>)
 
Steve, That electric start is a total waste of time, just take it off, pack it up and I will send you a shipping address. ;=)). Seriously if you have ever had a non complient motor in the morning when you are overdressed the push button will make a ton of sense. I have run a simple lawn mower battery to start my 25 without charging all season if that helps. (keep the starter} ALSO the ol' belt and suspender theory works here too. If the battery is dead just pull the string. BTW I would be very surprised if your motor has a charging system at all. I run a separate lawn mower battery for lights etc. so that is another part of my puzzle. Good luck. BTW What year motor do you have & I will check for you
 
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Steve, I use a lawnmower battery becuase I can trade that in if it's still under warranty.
 
I used an ATV battery for years in my 16' jon with a 23 hp Go-Devil. They tolerate vibration very well and that thing lasted and lasted with lots of cranking power to turn over the motor. I always ran the nav lights, anchor light and an aux. jack with spot light and never had a problem.
 
steve, I used an atv battery for years to start my 40 hp tohatsu and to lite up cockpit with led lights that is on my 17 tdb. never had any worries. rick
 
Steve this is what I run you won't be disappointed
I run " light bar use it for cranking and my sound system no issues even in the coldest of Weather and doesn't break the bank. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001ZTDEEY/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
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