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Posts: 901
| I know this is subjective based on how low the starting battery was to begin with.
Let's say you're out fishing for the day and you have 2 HDS 10s going. You fished for several hours without running the big motor.
Once you start the big motor and run to another spot how much charge does it get with let's say a 5 mins run?
How long would you have to run the big motor to get the starter back to a "full" charge?
Assume it's a 250 E Tec.
Thanks
Edited by MuskyMidget 5/18/2017 10:19 PM
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Posts: 735
Location: Apparently where the Muskie aren't | I don't know how long it would take to get to a full charge but I have gone out before with a almost dead starting battery (I mean scary low. I would never do it again) but we got the boat started and let if run for about 10 minutes, 5 minutes to get to our spot and then we let it run on idle for another 5 min or so while we fished. After that we didn't have anymore problems with it. We did run a sonar off it but it's defiantly no fancy one, it was a small old one from the early 2000s (maybe earlier) |
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Posts: 1901
Location: MN | You should be able to read the voltage on the GPS (might have to add it to your screen), then you can see what yours does. It really shouldn't take long to get it up over 12v which would be safe, and then 13 would be nearly fully charged |
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Posts: 337
Location: Watersmeet, Michigan | Doesn't answer your question, but I've been greeted by that low battery beep a few times. Isolated my sonar/map units and wired them to a dedicated battery. No more worries.
Fr. K |
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Posts: 410
Location: With my son on the water | A guy should be able to do the math on this to determine this, but there are always variable that will affect this like (wire size, battery condition, temperature, rpms, and alternator efficiency). But it's basically amps being drawn out versus amps being replaces.
If you look at the specs of any given locator you should be able to determine the amps required to run the unit per hour. You can also look at the alternator specs of an outboard which will tell you how many amps are produces per hour (although it is not show in hours so I could be wrong).
In the case of something like a Merc 250 opti it has a 60 amp alternator. So I am assuming that means that at higher RPMs the alternator will product 60 amps per hour, or 1 a minute.
I do know that for many guys on smaller lakes it is common they consume more amps with the electronics than the outboard is able to replace. So it is wise to either have an onboard charger or use some type of battery tender to top off the starting battery on a regular frequency.
I personally have also gone to starting batteries with more reserve and my problems have been eliminated too.
Have a good day.
Brad |
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Posts: 1086
Location: Hayward, WI | You have to subtract how many amps it is taking to run the motor. The ECU, ignition system and fuel injection system all take their share of that 60 amps before any goes to charging the battery. |
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Posts: 228
| kjgmh - 5/19/2017 12:41 PM
You have to subtract how many amps it is taking to run the motor. The ECU, ignition system and fuel injection system all take their share of that 60 amps before any goes to charging the battery.
And the trim and tilt on the big motor! |
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