Couple of Boat Questions

[MellerAM]

Well now that i got the boat I have a few questions as a novice boat owner.

Is it common for an older boat to have rough jerky steering at low speed. Once I get it going it seems to be much smoother and easier.???

[O PAPPY]

yes sometimes they get real jerky, 1) sometimes it feed back from the engine running at low speeds or idling, just normal Evinrudes & Johnsons were good about this watch your engine to see it its shaking. 2) also it couldnt hurt go to your local marine dealer and get a tube of good grease or have them do it and have the grease in your lower unit & tilt & trim checked also :D

[MellerAM]

Tahnks Pappy I thought it was common

Also It has a newer 3 bank charger. When I took it out I had about 20 seconds of trolling motor power then it wound down...

So I plugged the charger in and it said charging. ok I thought
Came back 20 min looked at it and it said Float and the green go-fish light was lit up.

I hit the trolling motor and again about 20 sec of power.

We checked the two trolling batteries and one is shot...why would the charger show full charge if one is crap?? Is it just not registering that there is a battery there??

Would it hurt to put a new battery on the series with the older (still good) trolling battery????

[O PAPPY]

no i think id go ahead and put two new one's in, i know its going to cost but your safer that way. you might try and find a good used battery and go ahead and use the other battery until they both quit. i also have had good luck with wal marts deep cycle batteries

[MoHops]

If your battery is at a low enough level of charge or dead, the charger won't recognize it and show that it's fully charged. Take it to an auto parts store and have them test it or try and put a charge on it. If it accepts a charge, then your onboard charger should recognize it now and keep it maintained at the proper charge.

Also check the inline fuses from your charger to batteries. I had one pop one time and couldn't understand why my one battery always had a full charge.

[Speck]

That right. If the battery has a bad cell, it could show fully charged because it will not accept a charge from the maintainer. This fools the maintainer into thinking the battery is fully charged. If you replace them, replace both batteries so they are the same age and size.

[centerdriver]

That right. If the battery has a bad cell, it could show fully charged because it will not accept a charge from the maintainer. This fools the maintainer into thinking the battery is fully charged. If you replace them, replace both batteries so they are the same age and size.

True. Also, the one with the lowest charge will pull off the hot one till equal. That is why it don't take long. Change both. In the long run, it will be more benificial.
Dusty