Thread: Winter Storage and Batteries

This is my first year owning a boat. So I am still learning.

I live in Indiana and our winters are pretty cold and about 4 months long. I'll be keeping the boat in my garage. The garage is attached to the house, it's not heated, but generally never gets below freezing.

A friend helped me fog the motor, change the grease in the lower unit, and add fuel stabilizer so I think I'm OK there.

My question is, should I disconnect the batteries? If so, can I just store them in the boat?

Thanks

I would suggest checking out this website: Battery Tender - Home of the Battery Tender Jr. - Batterytender.com

I have 3 Battery Tender Plus units that I use to charge & maintain my RV & Quad batteries. Plug it in and your done. If your batteries are not maintenance free, just check the water every so often. Think this would work well for you over the winter.

Larry

How do you recharge your trolling motor batteries now? You may want to consider an on-board charger which will act like the battery tender and also give you a way of recharging during fishing season. Get one with enough banks to cover all your batteries and you are set to go year round.

I have a minnkota on board charger for the two deep cycle batteries for my trolling motor. I assume I can keep that plugged in all winter as long as I check the water levels in those batteries.

Should I get a maintenance charger for the starter battery to keep it charged thru the winter?

These are probably pretty stupid questions but if I don't ask I won't learn. None of my manuals are very helpful.

Thanks again

The owners manual for the Dual Pro on-board charger I have said to keep it plugged in all the time. Check the owners manual for the charger you have. Make sure it charges each bank independently and has a "float" mode.

And yes, I would maintain all three batteries. JMO - from a guy in AZ talking about "winterizing" a boat.....:D

Larry

Any battery that just sits and loses charge without recharging will make it almost unrechargeable after the winter is over.I use mine all year long and as they say,to recharge your batteries right after returning from a fishing trip,same is true for just sitting.

I charge mine 1x a month and that seems to work fine. I always remember to do it but doing it the first weekend of the month.

Originally Posted by crappiewisdom

I have a minnkota on board charger for the two deep cycle batteries for my trolling motor. I assume I can keep that plugged in all winter as long as I check the water levels in those batteries.

Should I get a maintenance charger for the starter battery to keep it charged thru the winter?

These are probably pretty stupid questions but if I don't ask I won't learn. None of my manuals are very helpful.

Thanks again

It wouldn't hurt.

It never hurts to remove the cables from the batteries when storing. Two things happen when you remove them, one there is no discharge from the onboard electronics and two you are more likely to clean the terminals when you hook them up when you get the boat out of storage. Either way you win. The onboard chargers are the best, just mark the calender so you check the water level each month

Thanks for your responses. Because of you guys I was able to figure it out. This site is a great resource for us guys who are just learning. Thanks again.