New Stereo Questions for the electricly inclined...

[riverrunner5891]

I am wanting to put a new stereo in the boat. The one in there now leaves some major things to be desired, only having 2 6 1/2 in clarion speakers (one that is blown). What I am wanting to do is to replaced those two speakers with two new MBQuart 6 1/2" speakers, along with adding four MBQuart 6x9s and an MBQuart 350watt amplifier. I will also be replacing the existing head unit with the Clarion 109 Marine head unit. I currently have two batteries in the boat, one for the main power and one for the trolling motor. They are looped together so that they charge at the same time, as well as if one battery gets low it can feed from the other battery. My biggest question is: Should I leave them looped together, seperate them to ensure the radio cannot run the main battery to start the boat dead, or put them on a battery switch of some sort so that if need be I can still switch from one battery to both batteries (in the event my main battery would go dead I can still start the motor)? Also, I don't think that stereo would be too large of a drain on the battery in the first place, but I suppose to be safe it would be wise to possibly let the stereo play for several hours and see how much it drains the battery while on land rather than find out later? I just don't want to be way up/down stream and kill my battery with the stereo. Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[TNtroller]

might consider putting a seperate battery in just for the stereo if you're going to run an amp and 6 speakers. I don't know the specs on that amp or speakers, but if you like or want your music loud, that will take juice from one or both of the batts you currently have, and in turn, could leave you dead in the water or cut down on your fishing time. You could maybe rig it to where the charging system you have would charge the stereo batt 1st. How many watts does the HU put out, realistically, the mfr specs can be misleading. Do you really need the amp ??

 

[roadkill636]

what you need is called an ISOLATOR it installes between the two bateries it will charge both the bateries when the motor is running but will only draw off of the trooling batery, the amp will definantly drain the batery down much faster than you think. a isolater is basicly a large diod and only lets current travel one dirrection. you can find a small 50 - 100 amp one for under $75 all over and that way you can run all of your accesories off of the 2ed batery. trooling motor, radio, amp, lights, electronics and it will only draw off of the 2ed batery and none from the starting one

 

[PSG-1]

I once owned a Sea Doo jetboat that had some kind of electrical vampire, constantly killed batteries.

As an insurance policy, I installed a small PWC battery, in a battery box with a hold-down strap, and carried a small set of jumper cables I made from some AWG6 marine wire and some battery clips. That way, if I had a dead battery, I could still use the PWC-sized battery to jump start the engine.

 

[riverrunner5891]

Thank you all for the advice and feedback. The amp will be necissary to power the 4 6x9s properly, but I don't think it will be to hard of a drain as there will not be any subwoofers requiring large amount of power. To play it safe I will definitely have jumper cables in the boat so I can always have a fellow boater jump me if need be.

Roadkill: I appreciate the isolator idea. I will definitely check into that and see if I can rig one up on the batteries to keep it from draining my starting battery.

 

[Comstocker]

I ran a Pioneer amp and four 6x9s in my '69 Buick and it would drain the battery in about three hours of listening time at a moderate listening level. Crank up the volume and you will drain things out quicker!