TOPIC: battery

With this being my first boat, is a boat battery much different than a car battery? I can't see a difference.

welcome floyd,a boat battery is a deep cycle battery,its made to charge down and recharge many times,its also called an RV battery,because they are also used in campers.john

Thanks for the quick info. I wondered about the inactivity with a boat concerning the battery. I need to get this licenced in Washington State without VINS on the boat and trailer.

floyd066,

if you have the room, a PAIR of 6-volt golf-cart batteries will GENERALLY be superior to one marine deep-cycle battery, as they have better "rebound" & often a LOT more recharge cycles, too

just my opinion, satx

According to legend Marine batteries along with the deep cycle they are also built a little more solid inside to be able to take the pounding you get in a boat, but that could be an urban legend to justify the extra cost ??

Good advise given here Floyd, and good on ya for asking ahead of time (before buying). I believe the marine batteries are built a little tougher inside as Rick stated, the golf cart batteries would be of similar design I would think. Bruce G also reports that wheel chair batteries are excellent choices as they are made for repeated discharges, and very light.

One word of caution, avoid running "maintenance free", AGM or "gel" batteries on older outboards without a voltage regulator! The overcharge (16+ volts) will cause them an early demise reportedly. (I believe the reports, they were from very credible boating members here based on experience.)

A couple of other things: If you are running bilge pumps or other standby stuff, you might need a larger battery. If you are only starting an outboard and running lights, you don't need quite as much power. Also, I go 4 years out of the battery on my boat (no standby stuff). It held a charge, but lost cranking power. Bought a load tester at Harbor Freight and got the bad news.