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Make certain all of your connections are clean. If there is much corrosion build up, the batteries are not getting the juice they should be. They are not efficiently putting out either.

Ray

Two batteries seem common and there are quite a few threads on how to configure them, when we were going to rebuild our 27 footer for extended cruising we were going to go with 3 - two house and one small starter/emergency radio etc and solar chargers. We felt with switching to LEDs, that 2 deep cycles would provide 4 or more days of onboard lighting and electronics with solar recharging. No heavy power users like frigs, radar, or wide screen HDTVs were included. There is also a good thread on wind vs solar you might look at.

If you anchor in trees much, I would consider 10#s of bullet shaped lead for an anchor. Loosing even cheap Danforths could get expensive after a while.

I have a Merc bigfoot, the motor requires a charged battery before it will even turn over the starter, the cabin lights, the running lights, and the tilt motor on the other hand will work just fine when there is not enought battery to start the engine - I have gotten bit that way twice. Now my starter battery is always on a trickle charger when on the trailer and I have a seperate house battery.

My 06 Mer BF 50 started with 11 volts in 70 degrees.

James V wrote:My 06 Mer BF 50 started with 11 volts in 70 degrees.

Thats just all your rightious living.......
Mine must be set different 'cause it doesn't want to start with less than 12.3 or so

I use 2 wallmart Marine deep cycle wet 125 amp Hr. for house batteries and went this past 3 day weekend running everything on boat includeing Sterio,Lights,depth,TV,2 fans and inverter to charge cell phones and when I returned my Digital volt meter was 12.43 volts.
Get two of these for $78 each and a built in 10 amp charger with selector switch and that should do it.
I might add my Honda 50 only puts out 10 amps and much less in reality and only have it hooked up to starting battery. ,but haven't charged house batteries with the Honda outboard yet.
One turn of the slector switch will go directly to House batteries.
I keep the House batteries below Vberth next to glass bulkhead that holds foam, one is centered and one next to it is to starboard.
This keeps weight forward and to starboard to equal balance of the 13 gal. water tank I plan on putting under sink (have 5 gal. now).
Dave

cmeperform wrote:I left the 527c lowrance on,not a good idea.All 3 lights also.About 5 hours later all was dead.
With just a mass light,how long will two optimus gel cells last?

Had to cut the anchor line & swim while pulling the boat.No wind.Had generator but with dead batteries kept throwing breaker.LOL
Thought I was prepared,
NOT

tangentair wrote:

James V wrote:My 06 Mer BF 50 started with 11 volts in 70 degrees.

Thats just all your rightious living.......
Mine must be set different 'cause it doesn't want to start with less than 12.3 or so

I was in the Bahamas testing it out for 5 months.

I'm thinking about giving this another try.I'm packing up for another venture out on the lake.I wonder if I will ever get to sail this boat.Had it for almost two months now & never have sailed it.Something keeps going wrong.

We run three batteries but we are travelling for long periods and running a 70l fridge.
You can make a huge difference by cutting down your mast light and at least two cabin lights with led's, instead of using 18w (1.5 amps) an hr for one light you will only use 1.8w or 1 tenth.
There is huge differences in led prices so it would pay to shop around at specialty led suppliers.

thats a good idea.I will look into l.e.d..Or just hang the solar/battery operated lantern up there at night.

Our 26X came with a start battery plus a house battery, both Group 24 in the aft galley seat. The common lead on the off-1-both-2 switch was connected only to the outboard starter/charge cable. The house loads, including the factory lighting panel, the 250 milliamp (mA) GPS/Fishfinder, and two cigarette lighter outlets, were connected only to the house battery + terminal. There was no combiner, so I had to put the switch in "Both" to charge the house battery from the outboard and remember to move it back to "2" (which was the start battery) when not running the outboard.

The lighter outlets powered both an iPod/computer speaker stereo and the charger for our handheld VHF. Our anchor light, a 10W (0.73 amps (A) as measured by me) Hella Marine, plugged into the deck and ran about 10 hours/night. The cabin lights were the standard battery-eating 1.44A incandescent bulb factory lights, but we didn't use them much. The bottom line here is that we more than once stayed out five days with four nights at anchor, and still had plenty of battery charge in the single house battery. I only ran the outboard about 30 minutes/day, and only at about 2,000 rpm or less.

We're now staying out as many as 4 days/3 nights on the C-18, with only a single Group 24 house battery and no alternator on the pull-start 4HP kicker and no solar panel. The factory Catalina anchor light is the same 10W Hella Marine I put on the 26X, using about 22 amp-hours (AH) over 3 nights. An LED version would use much less. [edit - added: We also run one or two Hella Turbo fans on Low (140 mA each) for 10+ hours/night.] I've converted the cabin lights to LED and we no longer have the fixed GPS/fishfinder, just a dedicated depth sounder used only near shore. The iPod now powers a 2-channel stereo zone amplifier and it gets used about 3-5 hours/day. We don't charge the handheld VHF because we use it so infrequently a charge lasts all weekend. The lowest I've seen the battery voltage after a weekend is 12.3 volts. I take the battery home for charging each weekend.

If you're running down two batteries over a weekend, besides your electrical consumption habits, you really need to look at your electrical system and find where all the draw is coming from.

Thanks, I'm checking to see if there is any draw on them.I really think I just runned them down before I charged them.Keeping the switch in the none position also would have kept any draw off them.I have been working inside the boat & left the switch on for days as well.Thanks for the help.I can keep coming back & going over these post as help with anymore problems with this.

Went out again & had no troubles with the batteries.I'm sure now they were just low.Had a great night/day.Mark helped me rig the jinny & finally got to sail.It's a peaceful thing, ducks landing all around us.Can't wait to get it in a 30 degree heel on a good windy day.

Great news. On my extended cruise with days away from any power execpt on my boat my amp usage was a bit higher than predicted as I was using my radio and computer more than expected. I always keep 1 battery fully charged to start the motor and when I run down the other, I start the motor or wait until the sun charges my battey.

Several people are using that method.Think I will get one more battery.Thanks.
It's so nice to finally have the boat rigged.I couldn't sale this boat
to someone without giving an hour or 3 for some demonstrations.
That's cruel.

Since I sail more than I motor and use plenty of electronics including autopilot and take overnight trips, I invested in a dual battery charger. This is permanently installed. Every time I'm at the dock, I plug in. This keeps the batteries at full charge. At under $100, it's great item.

Leon