Posts: 1086
| Bruce - 5/14/2008 8:38 AM
I really like the idea of leaving them in the boat over the winter. With my bad back and all.....
Oh yeah...I forgot about that.
One year we had a winter-like storm hit us early one Fall and the temps really tanked. Tons of wet heavy snow fell, then the temps dropped even further...freezing everything solid that night.
Well...I was caught off guard by this storm and my boat was not yet winterized. I thought we still had several weeks of fishing to do. So..the thought never crossed my mind to bother.
Well...from the weight of the wet, heavy snow and the cheap boat cover I had on my old, 14 ft aluminum fishing boat at the time......the cover ripped and gave way to all of that wet, heavy snow. Even with the plug removed from the boat...that wet, heavy snow just accumulated in the boat and froze solid. Within the next several days...we had a freeze/thaw/freeze/thaw/freeze patter going on that turned that wet, heavy snow from snow to water then into ice....yet....even with the plug removed from the boat...it was never water long enough nor water all the way down to where the plug hole is located...so...the water never drained. The back end of my boat filled full of ice that was about 14" thick/deep.
Guess what was buried and frozen solid within all of that ice? My Deka battery at the time.
That cold and ice didn't phase that battery. I chipped all of the ice away and removed the boat from the battery...took it in to the garage...put it on the charger...it had held it's charge without so much as a flinch. Worked fine for a couple more years beyond that.
It was a sealed, cranking battery. That may have made a difference though. :shrug: |
