When to buy Deep Cell Battery?

[Pemnuts]

I've been to Cabela's, Dicks, Menards, Wal Mart and several other stores looking for items I might need, including a deep cell battery.
Every place has them for sale, but none are in a low charge mode to keep the battery charge up where it should be.
I really don't want to buy unknowingly - a battery sold as new, when in fact it's been sitting on the shelf for a couple years.
As this will be my first marine battery purchase, how can I know that I am getting a brand new battery?
When is the right time of the year to make a battery purchase?

As a side note, am I worrying over nothing on this..
I posted earlier, titled - no tin boat for me.. I ended up buying a canoe from Dicks last saturday. It's a Old Town Discovery 169.
The concern i have with the canoe, now that I've paid for it, it's still sitting at Dicks until this weekend.. is that when I went to get it registered, the person at the license bureau told me I should have gotten some type of paperwork to have when registering it. All I had was the sales receipt. The person at the license bureau called Dicks, and got the needed information. I thought I was buying a 2011 canoe, but according to the person at Dicks, it's actually a 2009 model. And on top of that, every discovery canoe I've looked at had a green or red hull. The canoe I paid for has what looks like a bad spray paint job, greenish grey looking. I called Old Town, they said it was a camo version made for the selling company. Color wise, I really like it. Actually, everything about it I love.. just curious what opinions you guys might have about the age of it ?
Thanks in advance,
Pem

 

[Jdholmes]

It happens...They may have just not changed the model in the past few years.

 

[JasonLester]

I wouldn't worry about the age of the canoe. Its not like they go bad...LOL...there are plenty out there that are from the 60s and 70s.

As for the battery look for a date on the battery I know Walmart has these. Although I am not sure a month or two will make much of a difference.

What are you going to be running on it? a trolling motor is probably the only reason you'll need a deep cycle. You can run other stuff on a regular batter or even setup a small battery for just a depth finder and a few lights etc.

 

[Pemnuts]

I'm going to run a traxxis 55lb variable speed troller.. =]
When I called Old Town, they said a 55 was recommended lol

 

[Jdholmes]

They recommended a 55 lb for a canoe? Dang...

 

[JasonLester]

Is it is square backed canoe....if not you may have some trouble with the 55. I have heard people don't like the big motors on the side mounts.

I have a 17lbs trust and it pushed our two kayaks hooked together at about 4-5 miles an hour for a couple hours on a deep cell battery. I would think something smaller would do fine on your canoe ...unless your pulling a skier :LOL2: :LOL2:

 

[Bigkat650]

I've been to Cabela's, Dicks, Menards, Wal Mart and several other stores looking for items I might need, including a deep cell battery.
Every place has them for sale, but none are in a low charge mode to keep the battery charge up where it should be.
I really don't want to buy unknowingly - a battery sold as new, when in fact it's been sitting on the shelf for a couple years.
As this will be my first marine battery purchase, how can I know that I am getting a brand new battery?
When is the right time of the year to make a battery purchase?

As a side note, am I worrying over nothing on this..
I posted earlier, titled - no tin boat for me.. I ended up buying a canoe from Dicks last saturday. It's a Old Town Discovery 169.
The concern i have with the canoe, now that I've paid for it, it's still sitting at Dicks until this weekend.. is that when I went to get it registered, the person at the license bureau told me I should have gotten some type of paperwork to have when registering it. All I had was the sales receipt. The person at the license bureau called Dicks, and got the needed information. I thought I was buying a 2011 canoe, but according to the person at Dicks, it's actually a 2009 model. And on top of that, every discovery canoe I've looked at had a green or red hull. The canoe I paid for has what looks like a bad spray paint job, greenish grey looking. I called Old Town, they said it was a camo version made for the selling company. Color wise, I really like it. Actually, everything about it I love.. just curious what opinions you guys might have about the age of it ?
Thanks in advance,
Pem

Unless you already have the electric trolling motor, you could consider a really small outboard instead. Its lighter (when you factor the battery), would go a couple MPH faster, and you're not limited to the distance a battery can take you. IMHO, that is what I would do... just keep the HP at 2.5 or less. (1.5hp is perfect for a square back canoe)...

As far as the deep cycle battery is concerned, I keep a pretty regular eye on them at my Walmart... if you frequent the store a lot, you can notice how well they are selling, and be able to figure out when they get some brand new ones in. For example, last week my local Walmart had 1 battery I was looking at--the next time I went in, they had 4 on the shelf. Now, they may have had them in the back, but I doubt they keep that many in stock. As long as it doesn't have a thick layer of dust on it, you should be ok haha

 

[redbug]

the date the battery was made should be on the battery i bought 3 new agm batteries that were made the same month that i bought them\

 

[TNtroller]

I've bought several batts from walmart, both marine and auto, and they have all had a "manufactured date" sticker on the case, just look for the most recent one in inventory, it should be good, if not, that's what the warranty is for.

 

[bassboy1]

I've bought several batts from walmart, both marine and auto, and they have all had a "manufactured date" sticker on the case, just look for the most recent one in inventory, it should be good, if not, that's what the warranty is for.

Since stores rotate stock, the new ones are going to be in the back. Always fun pulling out 6 batteries to get the newest one, then putting the front 5 back.

Unless you already have the electric trolling motor, you could consider a really small outboard instead. Its lighter (when you factor the battery), would go a couple MPH faster, and you're not limited to the distance a battery can take you. IMHO, that is what I would do... just keep the HP at 2.5 or less. (1.5hp is perfect for a square back canoe)...

The problem with that is the outboard doesn't really help much while fishing - it pretty well is good for moving from a - b, but not necessarily for fine tuning boat position while working down a bank. Also, it won't be allowed in electric only lakes.

 

[JasonLester]

Unless you already have the electric trolling motor, you could consider a really small outboard instead. Its lighter (when you factor the battery), would go a couple MPH faster, and you're not limited to the distance a battery can take you. IMHO, that is what I would do... just keep the HP at 2.5 or less. (1.5hp is perfect for a square back canoe)...

The problem with that is the outboard doesn't really help much while fishing - it pretty well is good for moving from a - b, but not necessarily for fine tuning boat position while working down a bank. Also, it won't be allowed in electric only lakes.

Good points. However it is a canoe. So fine tuning position can be done with a paddle. I picked up a 2.5 Nissan for 200 off Craigslist. Works great. If you stuck with a 30lbs thrust tiller trolling motor and found something like mine you could potentially have both for 300 or less. Then change depending on what your doing with it.

Just a thought.

 

[JasonLester]

Correct me if I am wrong. I just looked up the canoe in question here. It is not a square back canoe. Is that right?

How are you planning to hook it up? I have seen the mount on them but never tried one myself

 

[PATRIOT2]

I buy my deep cycles (dual-purpose) at Autozone. Date of manufacture stamped, warranty, and they price match.

 

[Pemnuts]

The canoe is an Old town guide 169. Sixteen foot nine inches long.
I made a motor mount for it earlier today while it was warm enough to be outside.. I only hope it works - looks like it will =]
My cost for all the motor mount parts at a local lumber store was 16 dollars.

 

[JasonLester]

Looks nice...let us know how that motor works with it. It should move along pretty good.

 

[Badbagger]

Look at manufacture date #1 - The VERY same batteries that West Marine sells (deep cycle) mind you, that are $150 +, you can get at O'reilly's Auto Parts for $85 and change. Made by Deka .. comes off the same **** assembly line and depending upon which conveyor belt it hits, it'd have a West Marine or O'reilly's store brand sticker... and they ARE "deep cycle"...

Walmart batteries are ok too but I'm going to buy two new batts from O'reilly's here in a few weeks for my G3 1966.

 

[user 7806]

Look at manufacture date #1 - The VERY same batteries that West Marine sells (deep cycle) mind you, that are $150 +, you can get at O'reilly's Auto Parts for $85 and change. Made by Deka .. comes off the same **** assembly line and depending upon which conveyor belt it hits, it'd have a West Marine or O'reilly's store brand sticker... and they ARE "deep cycle"...

Walmart batteries are ok too but I'm going to buy two new batts from O'reilly's here in a few weeks for my G3 1966.

I and some friends have all had bad luck with Deka batteries, these were not Deep Cycle and were used in street rods. They didn't last at all and had some that failed right out of the box and didn't even last 2 months. If you didn't keep a charger on them they wouldn't turn over the car if left sit for more that a day or two. & this was even with everything disconnected. Never had a probelm exchanging them as they were bought from a local auto parts store. But they were a pain so I gave up and went to Walmart and bought one and it has been fine.

Remember Deep Cycle batteries are made to be charged and discharged to a low state. Where a typical car battery is really made for momentary use like starting the vechicle they being recharged.