Battery Mounting Ideas

[Kevin English]

I'm trying to figure out the best way to mount a battery (for a fishfinder) on my Tarpon 140.  I have a 12V 10A battery - it's about 6" wide x 2.5" deep and 4.5" tall - weight at least 5+ pounds.  I'm thinking because of the weight I want to keep it in centerline of the boat.  I fish in the ocean - sometimes in pretty snotty conditions - so I really need it to be secure.  Does anyone have any tips or suggestions on battery mounting?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Kev

[Dallas Eastley]

Hi Kevin,

I'm not sure if they are available over there in the US, but OK (hope its ok to say another brands abbreviated name here) have a battery tray which is sold over here in Australia. Not a cheap item though unfortunately.

http://www.bla.com.au/index.php?fn=productView&id=11909&eId...

The tray is aluminium to prevent corrosion and glues to your hull with the included double sided 3M tape, the tray also has a webbing strap to hold the battery in place securely in rough conditions. I have one of these installed in my Tarpon 160 and it works very well.

The tray is designed to suit a standard 7AH battery, if its not available over there in the US maybe you can make up your own, shouldnt be too difficult I imagine.

I just added some marine goop around the tray edges as well after the 3M tape had adhered to the kayak, not sure if its really necessary but I thought it might prevent salt water getting to the glue or the foam backing on the tape and extend its life a little.

Hope this is helpful.

Cheers

Dallas

[Jason Berg]

Here's what I did to protect my battery.
http://wildernesssystems.ning.com/forum/topics/waterproof-storage-f...
I have the Commander 120 and put a slit in the foam at the front of the boat and ran webbing through it to hold the battery in one spot. I still haven't decided how to run the power wire through the box.

[David]

I have a Tarpon 160 and I put my battery into a waterproof battery box and velcroed 3 wide strips to the box and placed it into my front hatch. When I need to take it out and charge it, not a problem.

[Russ]

If I were fishing saltwater I would have installed used a dry box or some other sealed container, but since i fish exclusively in freshwater I did this http://wildernesssystems.ning.com/forum/topics/tarpon-120?xg_source... Iv never had a problem with it, even when I trailer it from one spot to the next.

Cheers!

Russ

[George C. Cook]

Check out Hook 1. They have a dry box that is outfitted for battery with quick connectors and the whole nine yards. I only fish freshwater so use an old camera bag that serves my purposes very well. I posted a few pictures in the photo section of this venue showing that all my fishing and navigation gear is mounted to a Scotty Tripple mount along with my transducer deployment arm and rod holder. This allows for flexibility in transport and storage as my entire fishing rig is moveable with a simple half turn of the tripple bar. It also allows me to move the rig to my canoe whenever I want to use that boat as a fishing platform.

[Dennis Barnes]

You may want to get rid of that battery that weighs 5 lbs and get yourself something like this setup.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqzkFMgpWBI
John Oast is a good friend of mine and he puts together a few nice videos. Check him out on youtube his name is fishyaker

[J. B.]

I will just echo Dennis Barnes comment, and suggest that you don't need such a heavy battery. I use eight 2500 milliamp AA batteries to power my fishfinder. I just posted a blog that shows how I keep them dry. If you go with eight AAs they will be much lighter and you will have more options for mounting them.

http://wildernesssystems.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sounder-and-batter...

I also fish the open ocean (Canadian maritimes), sometimes in some very snotty conditions, and the set-up keeps the batteries nice and secure. I use velcro to keep it in place, but you could easily work out a more permanent installation.

Best,
J.B.