super bait tank battery question

castandblast · Jun 22, 2017

What kind of battery do you guys run your bait tanks on? I've got a 40 gallon super bait tank and have been running it on a lawn mower battery. I will run my hydroglow light for about an hour and bait tank on this battery and within 6hrs its starting to go dead. My trolling motor is a 24vlt system, and I really don't like to run anything else on my starting battery besides my depth finder and running lights.
This battery was purchased in May of this year at a quality battery store not from walmart and it was a new battery not a blim.

Could it be the pump in the tank?

jeremyledford · Jun 22, 2017

I would not tie it into your trolling motor system and deal with that headache plus having to make it 12v vs. 24. I too am weird about running a ton of things off my cranking battery. Some day I know it would cost me and try to eliminate that altogether.

Do you have room for an extra battery on board? a marine battery will be the way to go for extra run time. or carry a second lawnmower battery and some quick connects to change over.

StriperrHunterr · Jun 22, 2017

jeremyledford said:
I would not tie it into your trolling motor system and deal with that headache plus having to make it 12v vs. 24. I too am weird about running a ton of things off my cranking battery. Some day I know it would cost me and try to eliminate that altogether.

Do you have room for an extra battery on board? a marine battery will be the way to go for extra run time. or carry a second lawnmower battery and some quick connects to change over.

Not even change them over. Connect them in parallel and just double the capacity while maintaining voltage.

jeremyledford · Jun 22, 2017

StripeRR HunteRR said:
Not even change them over. Connect them in parallel and just double the capacity while maintaining voltage.

Oh, Duh. That's a much better option. Although a single marine battery may fit the bill and be easier.

StriperrHunterr · Jun 22, 2017

jeremyledford said:
Oh, Duh. That's a much better option. Although a single marine battery may fit the bill and be easier.

The double would allow you to run your lights and anything else you wanted to off it.

tillman86 · Jun 23, 2017

I run mine off of a small deep cycle wheel chair battery you can get from Battery Sales and Service. Think they are around 40-50 bucks and are meant to be recharged. These have around 35 amp hours and are small, probably weigh 10 lbs.

Thunder Head · Jun 23, 2017

I tired the lawn mower battery. Like you it would only run about 6 hours.

I bought a smaller marine battery. It will run my 30 gallon for 24 hrs.

I put it under the console and put 2 stainless bolts sticking out of the console. Makes it easy to re-charge.

donald-f · Jun 23, 2017

A lawn mower battery is not designed to be drained and recharged. Get a deep cycle trolling motor battery or the small battery for a wheel chair as stated above.

Steve762us · Jun 23, 2017

I'd just put a PWM board on the 24VDC output
and be done with it--no changes to your existing
charging set up.

Is total amp load from your 12 VDC accessories--
pump & lamps--less than 30 A? Something like
this would do the trick--connect it to 24VDC, adjust
output to 12-13 VDC, hook up your 12VDC accessories,
and stash the PWM where it has air, but can't get splashed/
rained on.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-12-80V-3...963632&hash=item25d13a32ed:g:isIAAOSwfVpYwOtb

amicusnole · Jun 23, 2017

Thunder Head said:
I tired the lawn mower battery. Like you it would only run about 6 hours.

I bought a smaller marine battery. It will run my 30 gallon for 24 hrs.

I put it under the console and put 2 stainless bolts sticking out of the console. Makes it easy to re-charge.

This is what I plan on doing now that I've learned my lesson. Left my bait tank running all night at Lake Seminole and woke up to a dead cranking battery.

Steve762us · Jun 23, 2017

StripeRR HunteRR said:
Not even change them over. Connect them in parallel and just double the capacity while maintaining voltage.

Not if he's still got the trolling batteries rigged
for supplying 24 VDC.

Paralelling both trolling batteries to provide 12 VDC would put a dead short across the terminals of the first battery (the + terminal of the 24 VDC). "Not good," would be an understatement. It would be exciting, however. ::ke:

He could rig the 12 VDC circuit *only* to one of the trolling batteries, and that would work without blowing up either trolling battery. The downside would be
putting a bigger drain on that one battery, putting it 'out of balance' with the other battery, which would result in shorter life for the pair, as one drops lower and lower and the other tries to make up for it.

Terribleted · Jun 25, 2017

If there is a 24V trolling motor being fed by the 24 V battery bank then those should be left alone. The issue is that the mower battery is too small and does not have enough capacity to run the tank etc. for longer. The simple answer is to replace the mower battery with a regular series 24 or 31 or whatever deep cycle battery for these 12V accessories and charge it between uses. IF I was to do this I would also likely wire my graph to this new battery as I also like to keep loads off the starting battery and now this extra 12V source should have enough capacity to handle the graph as well.

StriperrHunterr · Jun 26, 2017

Steve762us said:
Not if he's still got the trolling batteries rigged
for supplying 24 VDC.

Paralelling both trolling batteries to provide 12 VDC would put a dead short across the terminals of the first battery (the + terminal of the 24 VDC). "Not good," would be an understatement. It would be exciting, however.

He could rig the 12 VDC circuit *only* to one of the trolling batteries, and that would work without blowing up either trolling battery. The downside would be
putting a bigger drain on that one battery, putting it 'out of balance' with the other battery, which would result in shorter life for the pair, as one drops lower and lower and the other tries to make up for it.

My comment was based on the OP of the quote I made mentioning lawn mower batteries, not trying to parallel to TM batts.

Steve762us · Jun 26, 2017

StripeRR HunteRR said:
My comment was based on the OP of the quote I made mentioning lawn mower batteries, not trying to parallel to TM batts.

OP only stated he had one mower battery, so the only "them" there, is his pair of trolling batteries, currently series-rigged to provide 24VDC.

BTW, rigging "them" as suggested (paralleling the series-rigged batteries to provide 12VDC) would short both batteries, not just the + side. Both batteries would then potentially become onboard sulfuric acid dispensers, i.e. KABOOM, if they didn't instantly turn the 12VDC wiring into a melting fusible link (possibly starting a fire in the process). :hair:

The least "bad thing" that could result would be warped plates in batteries, creating an internal shorts & permanently ruining the batteries.

Not trying to hurt anyone's feelings here--just providing a warning against doing something that could result in severe personal injury, for OP or anyone else looking at this thread in the future.

castandblast · Jun 26, 2017

Thanks guys for the help. I knew better to run the tank off my 24vlt system and I purchased the tank used from a member on GON who ran the tank off his cranking battery in the cig lighter plug, which I did not want to do so I changed the plug to a alligator clamps. I have a 17ft boat and a 40 gallon tank takes up more room than I'd like already so adding another battery is the last thing I wanted to do. I have called striper soup and they have a some kind of a small marine battery there but the guy who answered the phone wasn't real sure of what kind it was exactly. I have also called my local battery shop and they may have some wheel chair batteries in stock now, which they didn't when my last battery died.

I'll post an update on what battery striper soup has if anyone is interested but it will be a week or so when I return back in town.

Happy fishing!

StriperrHunterr · Jun 26, 2017

Steve762us said:
OP only stated he had one mower battery, so the only "them" there, is his pair of trolling batteries, currently series-rigged to provide 24VDC.

BTW, rigging "them" as suggested (paralleling the series-rigged batteries to provide 12VDC) would short both batteries, not just the + side. Both batteries would then potentially become onboard sulfuric acid dispensers, i.e. KABOOM, if they didn't instantly turn the 12VDC wiring into a melting fusible link (possibly starting a fire in the process).

The least "bad thing" that could result would be warped plates in batteries, creating an internal shorts & permanently ruining the batteries.

Not trying to hurt anyone's feelings here--just providing a warning against doing something that could result in severe personal injury, for OP or anyone else looking at this thread in the future.

It's a good warning and maybe my initial response wasn't as clear as it could have been.

super bait tank battery question

castandblast

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jeremyledford

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StriperrHunterr

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jeremyledford

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StriperrHunterr

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tillman86

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Thunder Head

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donald-f

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Steve762us

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amicusnole

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Steve762us

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Terribleted

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StriperrHunterr

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Steve762us

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castandblast

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