Thread: Parallel batteries

When I had a 12V trolling motor, I did and I will again if I ever have another 12V TM.

Yes. I have my 2 12 v trolling motor batteries tied together parallel. Works good.

Ooops, I didn't mean to post this in fishing section.
I don't know how to move it!

What Do You Mean I Would Not Give You A Hard Time

I dont know why you cant talk about your Crappie fishing boat batteries...
If you were trying to start a thread about the Daytona 500 I could understand. But (H.E. double hocky sticks) The Boat,Motor,and traylor is what gets you to the C.R.A.P.P.I.E.
I have always heard to separate the two battries with a 3way switch........ If one goes bad you have the other one... If the troling runs out your crancking bat can still crank. if you parrelle a good battery to a weaker bat it will pull the good one down. If you have a short, both go dead quickly. I say get the switch or keep em separated. It can ruin a good C.R.A.P.P.I.E fishing trip.

Fishing report: they're not biting yet. Too cold to find out

Pwrighta1 does have a point there...But to go into further detail about what I did, I had 2 batteries as a cranking battery and for the electronics and the other 2 for trolling motor batteries only. Both sets were in parallel. I know running 2 batteries in parallel for cranking and electronics is probably an overkill, but there is nothing worse than having a battery go dead on you while out on the lake fishing. By running them in parallel, I didn't see any reason for a switch because 1 hard day of fishing never killed 2 batteries. I only run 1 battery now in my fiberglass boat for cranking and electronics due to lack of space, but I do have a good set of jumper cables in the boat

I've had 2 BIG walmart batts in parallel (12 volt) for everything but cranking going on a year and a half. I can long-line troll without stop now. I charge them together because i draw off them together. The charger is a Shumaker deep cycle (blue color) from walmart and i recharge at 15 amps in about 5-6 hours without failures. Some of the members will disagree with the charging technique but it has consistently worked for me Haha, i just realized that i'm 100 % powered by walmart. Thats gettofabulous :D

Originally Posted by jafacman

I've had 2 BIG walmart batts in parallel (12 volt) for everything but cranking going on a year and a half. I can long-line troll without stop now. I charge them together because i draw off them together. The charger is a Shumaker deep cycle (blue color) from walmart and i recharge at 15 amps in about 5-6 hours without failures. Some of the members will disagree with the charging technique but it has consistently worked for me Haha, i just realized that i'm 100 % powered by walmart. Thats gettofabulous :D

I'm running the same batteries and never unhook 'em when charging 'em (charge them both at the same time). I trolled Monday from 7:30AM-5PM and my indicator light on the troller said the batts still had 3/4 of a charge. One battery might do ya, but the second one is "insurance.":D