Battery Charger 2000 Marlin

[boatino]

I recently purchased a 2000 GW Marlin. The 4 bank of batteries had one bad battery. These were all starting batteries. When I went to Interstate they said I should put in at least one Deep Cycle Battery because I troll for trout & salmon and the electronics along with the downriggers would drain the starting type battery too fast. My question is: I just read an article about making sure your battery charger can handle different types of batteries or it will damage the battery? Does anyone know if the charger on the Marlin can charge different styles or batteries (starting vs. deep cycle)? Or should I just be running all starting batteries?

Let me know what you think.

Thanks,

John

 

[Grady678]

The charger will recognize the difference. The starting batteries are isolateed from the accessory batteries. Unless you are running your refrigerator and radar.....it's doubtful you are running down your accessory batteries and definitely not your starting batteries. Are you taking battery readings direct from the posts and see a deficiency?

 

[boatino]

Grady 678,

I called Grady White customer service yesterday and they told me to run all starting batteries, that the guest charging system may cause a problem with different battery types. I thought that was pretty unusual but I went back to Interstate Batteries this morning to return the deep cycle for a starter and they said Grady White is crazy... Either way I got a starting battery just to keep the peace. Grady also told me to get a group 27D Starting Battery with high reserve with 182 minutes of reserve capacity. The only problem is all of the batteries currently on the boat are 24D batteries and the trays are too small for the 27D's. So I got the Heavy Duty Starting 24D battery with 180 reserve minutes. I hope all works well.

Thanks for the input.

John

 

[Grady678]

GW gave good advice. It's the reserve minutes that are key. 180 minutes X 4 fully charged batteries........plenty of power for your/our setup.

At some point, GW used thumb screw type terminal hardware on a couple Marlins that I know of (older ones I looked at before buying mine). I swapped mine out for standard stainless hex nuts. Industry standard that I'm sure your setup already has. Oh yeah, put a tablesppon of bearing grease on each terminal terminal fitting and exposed cable. One less thing you have to lube for 2 years. Good luck!

 

[seabob4]

The charger doesn't care whether your batts are starting or deep cycle. It also doesn't care whether they are wet cell or AGM. But it DOES care if you use Gel Cell, as they can't handle the charging rates wet cell and AGMs can.

Go with the best deep cycle you can afford for your heavy use equipment.

 

[tiderunner]

I just replaced mine. Used 2 grp 31 AGM (DRY) for the house bank I think the combined RC is around 400 min and 2 grp 24 starting 1000 MCA lead acid (WET) for the 2 starting banks. I went with the AGM because the the shitty location that grady came up with for the batteries because you just can't service anything in there. Went with strait starting batteries for 2 reasons. First is for weight starting batteries are very light these are around 35 lbs each . Second was cost much cheaper than dual purpose and I dont need the deep cycle capabilities in my starting banks. Batteries are manufactured by Deka. I also upgraded my charger from the orginal factory install to a pro mariner 1240iplus. Purchased specific charger after speaking with a pro mariner rep who posts on THT. Found charger on internet for $350.06 shipped to my door. West has it for just under $500 I also replaced all of the battery cables with 1/0 marine cable and new end terminations lugs that I crimped, soldered and then shinkwraped. Also cleaned up Grady's messy install of the bilge pump wiring going to the house bank using in line glass fuse holders these thing are junk and have no place below deck. Replaced both of those with a nice 6 fuse block made by blue seas.

 

[BobP]

I thought the Marlin has 4 batteries, making up two banks.

Which means pairs hard wired in parallel, with one pair per motor, and no specific batt(s) for house load vs. start load (?)

 

[tiderunner]

I dont know how the newer ones are but my rig was factory set up for 4 batteries on 4 banks.I changed it around to make it 4 batteries on 3 banks. It just did not make much sense to me to have 2 seperate house banks. Plus a new 4 bank battery charger is very large in size and in dollar.
2 batteries are dedicated for starting both moters. They can be used together or independantly with the ease of 2 seperate battery swithes. Then there is the house bank of 2 additional batteries these are for everything else and have nothing to do with the engines.
I like this set up alot because I can kill my house bank down to absolutly zero volts and moters will start with the touch of the key. I do kill the house bank when I ancor up overnight and if someone unplugs my shore power cord. Refridgerater is run on 12VDC power only and will kill off batteries if left on for extended periods with out running the moters.