Fish Finder Battery ?

[RapalaUt]

Curious how most of you guys power your fish finders. Do you use an exclusive battery just for your finders, or do you hook into your engine or trolling motor batteries?
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[HATH]

I use my accessories battery to power my fish finder. I leave my other battery for the exclusive use of my big motor.
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[talyn]

it's connected to the engine battery.

[CoyoteSpinner]

I've got 'em wired into the system, or run on a standalone smaller 12V - which I think I'm going to move to more. My trolling motor and hummingbird don't seem to like to coexists on the same lag point. The finder shuts down.

You might check the for-sale board, or PM Tubedude - he had a bunch of the 12V style. I've seen em at Walleyworld for about $25 with charger.
If you're not running a bunch of electical devices - you don't necessarily even need a big heavy battery. More if you're into a trolling motor, or powered downriggers, lots lights... super stereo!!!

[mike4cobra]

I run a 29 series starting/deep cycle battery for the big motor and accessories. You have to run a charger at home if you are using the starting battery as your accessory power also. The run back to the dock is usually not enough to bring the charge all the way back up.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Still got a bunch of the seminew 12 volts...$10 each...3 for $25[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]A lot depends on the combo of sonar and engine. Some are not entirely friendly with each other. I know quite a few guys who prefer to keep the electronics on a separate battery because of interference or total shutdown when the motor is running.[/#0000ff]
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[Tarponjim]

[quote mike4cobra] I run a 29 series starting/deep cycle battery for the big motor and accessories. You have to run a charger at home if you are using the starting battery as your accessory power also. The run back to the dock is usually not enough to bring the charge all the way back up.[/quote]

Exactly the set-up I have. I run two 7" Lowrances constantly all day on my starting battery. Only have to re-charge at home if I only run short to one area, fish all day there, and then run back to the dock. (seldom!) If I move a few times, the motor keeps the batteries charged for weeks/months.

I get no interference from the motor because I direct-wire my sonars (and all other accessories-lights, bilge, gps ant., etc) straight to the battery. No fuse box for me, only in-lines.
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[HATH]

Do you also run an electric trolling motor off your main starting battery(ies)? If so, how many volts is your electric motor, and how long is the charge lasting you on a trip if you're running the electric all day?
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[TheCarDoctor]

In the boat, it's wired to the engine battery. On my float tube, I use 8 rechargeable AA batteries in a PVC holder I made. It works great.
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[Tarponjim]

No, I have two separate group 29 deep cycle batteries exclusively for my 24-volt trolling motor. Nothing else but the trolling motor connected to those, everything else connected to the starting battery, also a deep cycle. Plenty of amps to turn over my 115 Optimax.
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[BigEZ]

I use a single deep cycle marine battery for the trolling motor and fish finder. No problems so far. Besides, the fish finder doubles as a gauge showing the voltage drop due to trolling; a nice indicator of how much juice remains.
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[RapalaUt]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. For now I've wired it directly to the cranking battery. I threw a fuse on it just to be safe. I'll just have to remember to shut it off! I also thought about the low voltage indicator.
I picked up a separate battery to run the trolling motor. They were hard to come by. The local walmart was cleaned out of deep cycles over the weekend. Thanks again.
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