Separate Battery for Downriggers

[jimalbert]

Separate Battery for Downriggers

I just picked up some Walker Tournament Electric Riggers and want to get them mounted to the boat and wired up before its time to actually use them.  Do you guys run them off of a separate battery?  I currently have a size 24 or 27 for the cranking battery (Motor, electronics, bilge, lights, radio etc) are connected to this battery.  I also have (2) size 27's for my bow mount Powerdrive.  I was thinking about installing a bigger alternator and running another set of leads off the alternator to a 4th battery for the downriggers.  Do you guys think its necessary to do this or is running them to the deep cycle good enough?  If I do throw another battery in there I will need to relocate my on board charger.

 

Thanks,

 

Jim

[BigMac]

My riggers are hooked up to my only house battery. Along with my graph, radio, lights etc.

If your kicker charges while you troll you will have no problems.

[jimalbert]

Thanks Mac.  I troll with my I/O and trolling bags as I can get low enough speeds with it but the same principal applies.  a 9.9 or 15 is in my near future though.  Always nice to have a backup out there.

 

Jim

[BigMac]

Yup no need then. The big motor will charge a lot stronger than a kicker anyways. Worst case I would upgrade to a group 31.

[Xxx]

Jim, are your 2 batteries up front of the boat for your trolling batteries? Do you have them isolated from the charging system?. You got a lot of stuff running off one battery. I have 2 batteries group 27's. If you have a older kicker they don't put out enough to keep your batteries up to full charge they only put out 5-6 amp at high rpm's. Now the newer models like the big foot and others designed for trolling have higher output. I'm certainly not headed out with one battery, I wired mine to a Perko switch and run my riggers off my main, which lasts a long time. If I want to move I switch to both and she fires up and I let it there till the. Both are reading 14 volts shut main down and switch to battery 1 again. Or keep a set of jumper cables near by in case you need a jump you have those other two batteries up front. I've seen too many batteries take a dump for no reason to have all my eggs in one basket. I have put together a 130 amp alt. in my boat. Being that I was in the starter & alternator business for 20 some years before my accident. I no longer can do it but I still have my equipment, getting it set up at the house so I can mess around with the older stuff that you can't go to a big box store and get.

[jimalbert]

I wish I could.  The area in the back of my FishMaster isn't deep enough to put a size 31 back there.  I put the biggest battery in that I could fit.

[Misty IV]

I have (2) batteries on my Islander. Group-24 as the starting battery for the main engine. I have a Group-27 deep cycle which powers ALL my electronics (GPS, VHF radio, fish finder, AM/FM radio and downriggers). Both batteries are connected to the main engine through an isolator which charges both batteries when the engine is running. I have a switch at the dash which allows me to engage or disengage the isolator should I need to.

I did this so my main engine battery is always isolated from all electronic devices and any parasitic draw. Guarantees the main battery always has enough juice to fire up the main engine. I've been running this system since 2005 and just replaced the 24 last year and the 27 in 2014.

Sent from my XT1060 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[martin1950]

"Separate Battery for Downriggers

I just picked up some Walker Tournament Electric Riggers and want to get them mounted to the boat and wired up before its time to actually use them.  Do you guys run them off of a separate battery?"

 

If you go this route and those Walkers have Auto Stop, you'll want to common ground all your batteries.