Battery and Motor Issues

[Strat200XL]

Hey Guys,

I have a 2006 Yamaha HPDI 225 and I have been having trouble with keeping my crank battery charged. The Crank battery is a Interstate 1000 cranking amps that I picked up in June of 2010. I have recently ran my power cables for my HDS 8 and HDS 7 to this battery plus the LSS-1 unit. i was on the lake this weekend in TX and around 3:30 I sat down and my big motor was dead. I have a 2 bank charger so I plug that in and charge my crank battery with a normal battery charger, which showed it was fully charged in the morning befor I left.

Could if be the alternator in the motor if so what do you think this should run?

Thanks,
BRITT

[Waterfoul]

Those three units will drain a starting battery quick.  You are better off adding a dedicated deep cycle battery for your electronics....

[djkimmel]

I'm not sure 100%, but I installed simple cutoff switches in my GPS antennae wires because the documentation for my older Lowrance said the antennae is powered constantly, so there's additional drain maybe on top of running 3 powerful units. If you are not making long runs very often, it's possible though I've never had all my stuff run my 'start' battery down before in a tournament situation. I use a combo deep cycle/cranking wet cell Deka Marine Master battery size 31.

Have you checked your start battery to make sure it doesn't have a bad cell? Once in a while, you just get a bad one or it gets damaged from a road or lake jolt.

If it has drained on a day where you didn't charge it over night, there's still also a possibility you have a positive drain on it going on in your boat overnight. I've seen it a few times. I always turn off all my connected electronics with switches I installed on the wires and at my fuse banks. I have the same motor and have not had that ever run my batteries down. I have seen other motors do it in the past though.

Start with the easiest first and work your way to harder. Easiest to me would be to check the battery for a bad cell. Good luck.

[LGMOUTH]

 Im with Dan on this one. You should not run out of juice just running your electronics with a 1000 cranking amp battery. Like Dan suggests, I would check to see if the battery has a bad cell. Also you might want to check your battery charger. It might not be charging properly and your not getting a full charge. I have fished in alot of 8 hour tournaments and just started the big motor to get to and from a fishing spot, used all my graphs and the livewells the entire day and never had a problem with the battery. So it shouldnt be a alternator problem. Check the battery and the charger and go from there.

[Lightningboy]

OK, you've got several possibilities here.  It's probably not the outboard, rarely a problem.

Have the battery load tested.  Just about any auto store can load test the battery to see if it'll hold a charge.  If the battery checks out OK, then:

Do you have an on/off switch in the power to the LSS-1 unit?  The unit draws a fair amount of power, it should be switched off anytime you're not using the side imaging.  I also put my HDS10/7 on "sleep" when I'm not using them, to reduce power use.

Test the charger according to manufacturer instructions.  Could be the charger is bad, but faults by showing a full charge.

One last option; how many items are hooked directly to the battery posts?  The more ring terminals you have stacked on a post, the less real power you send to each item.  I have only three rings on each post: one set for the outboard, one set for the charger, and one set that leads to a nearby terminal strip.  No cheap ring terminals either, get good quality metal ones and keep them clean/lubed.

[SethV]

I think you need a big boy battery not that toy interstate battery.  Only one I have found that keeps 4 GPS units and 2 livewell pumps going all day plus cranks the ProXS is the Sears Platinum Die Hard 31M.  Lots of coin, but it won't leave ya on the lake.  You need 1000 MCA plus 120 minutes reserve MINIMUM.

[Strat200XL]

Thanks guys very good information and I am in the process of figuring it all out as we speak.
I have a few big Bass Champs tournaments coming up and really want to make sure everything is in tip top shape!! Hopefully it is a quick fix and i can get back on the water this weekend to start practicing!!

Thanks Again for the help and tight lines!

Seth you need to get down here man I put together a 29lb day on a central Tx lake 2 weeks ago and thats not on a lake full of giants either.
Amistad is on fire and so if Falcon, so anytime just call me and lets set it up!! TEXAS ROCKS

Britt

[graphicideas1]

You can set up a low voltage alarm on your HDS units if you have software version 3.5.  Then atleast you will know when you are getting low and not dead on water.

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