Battery Tenders

[viperdrum]

I have an 08 225 I keep in a boathouse near the Chesapeake in Va. I put it up in late December and take it down off the lift in March. Temps can go from low teens to 45 or so. I do the typical winter stuff but do not remove batteries or put them on a tender.

I use tenders on my cars (several Vipers) in winter because I don't drive them much. So far the boat has fired up (March 09) with no problem.

Do you guys uses tenders and /or remove the batteries? I used to remove the batteries on my 208 but it was a pain.Thanks

 

[Green Mountain Grady]

I live in Vermont and typically just disconnect the batteries and either leave them in the boat or pull them and stick them in my garage (unheated) for the winter (late October - early May). Just to be on the safe side I hook them to a battery charger prior to launching. Have never had a problem and everyone else up here seems to do the same thing.

 

[sluggoe]

i think you will get lots of variations on what to do with batteries in winter -- some leave in boat and disconnect, some take home and let sit, some take home and charge once or twice, etc.;

depends also on how old your batteries are and the temps at the location they will reside (i.e. in the boat, in basement, in garage);

myself, i stick them in the basement and re-charge b4 launching in May (winter for me is Dec - May);

--slugg.

 

[CJBROWN]

use the search. We covered this in depth a few months ago.

At those temps self-discharge is virtually nonexistant. A trickle charger that doesn't have an automatic shut off can actually over charge a battery, and boil the water out of it. I would not do that in a boat in storage.

If you shut off all parasitic drain (battery disco) they can winter over in the boat just fine.