# Battery help and placement



## topnative2 (Feb 22, 2009)

makes sense


----------



## bryson (Jun 22, 2015)

Yeah, just piece of mind. If you ever anchor and bait fish or hang at the sandbar, it's nice to run your livewell pump or radio off of one battery, and know that you can switch to a fully charged battery to start the engine. I have an '94 18 Redfisher and have 2 batteries under the console.

If you want to get fancy, you could have one cranking battery and one deep cycle -- it just takes a little more awareness as to which battery you're using for what task.


----------



## Awarsoca (May 14, 2017)

did you rewire to the CC batteries? right now everything is fused and on the main battery.



bryson said:


> Yeah, just piece of mind. If you ever anchor and bait fish or hang at the sandbar, it's nice to run your livewell pump or radio off of one battery, and know that you can switch to a fully charged battery to start the engine. I have an '94 18 Redfisher and have 2 batteries under the console.
> 
> If you want to get fancy, you could have one cranking battery and one deep cycle -- it just takes a little more awareness as to which battery you're using for what task.


----------



## bryson (Jun 22, 2015)

Awarsoca said:


> did you rewire to the CC batteries? right now everything is fused and on the main battery.


I actually just finished a full rewire of the boat. Basically everything on the (+) side comes from the Perko switch. The positive for each battery goes to the switch and nothing else.

I chose to have my auto bilge wire run off the Perko switch and fused, but not through the switch panel. If I had a larger boat that I kept in the water, I would bypass the Perko and run straight from the battery to the fuse to the pump.

Is your primary battery already in the console? If so, it will be pretty straightforward to add a battery without changing anything else. Everything connected to the positive side of the existing battery will now connect to the Perko output (unless you want something to bypass the switch, like an auto bilge, for example). Everything connected to the negative side of the battery can connect to a stud, or ground post. Then both battery negative wires run to that ground post, and both battery positive wires run to the back of the Perko.

You can get more involved if you want, but if your goal is simply to add another battery without changing anything else, it's pretty straightforward.


----------



## Awarsoca (May 14, 2017)

bryson said:


> I actually just finished a full rewire of the boat. Basically everything on the (+) side comes from the Perko switch. The positive for each battery goes to the switch and nothing else.
> 
> I chose to have my auto bilge wire run off the Perko switch and fused, but not through the switch panel. If I had a larger boat that I kept in the water, I would bypass the Perko and run straight from the battery to the fuse to the pump.
> 
> ...


Much appreciated. I added a second battery and a Blue Sea switch yesterday. Installed both in the stern access. nice and clean install since all the wires were already back there. Hated adding the extra weight back there but it seemed to be the easiest way so as not to have to rewire yet. I may reconfigure when I do a full rewire. Was all set to test it out when I noticed gear oil dripping from the prop. Popped the screws and it was not clear. Boat at the shop now, for what hopefully will just be a prop seal /sigh


----------

