Battery or Fuse problem

[luckystiff]

I have a lund 1800 and all of the electrical equipment is wired into a fuse panel including the depthfinder. Here is my problem, whenever I turn on any other switch, it shorts out the depth finder...
What should I do? Do I need bigger fuses, or do I have to rewire my depthfinder directly to the battery? and second, which battery, the starter or the trolling motor?
Thanks!

[LocalGuide]

Ever try cleaning off the batter posts/connectors?

We had the same thing happen with our boat. The depth finder and the GPS would be on. As soon as we would beep the horn, it would shut off both units. So for a quick solution we never beeped the horn. Later on the depth finder just shut off and I couldn't turn it back on. So then we checked the fuses, nothing. Next we looked at the batter post for corrosion, nothing extreme (actually looked fine). But we took everything off the posts cleaned them up so they looked shinny with no corrosion what so ever and wallah! No more electrical problems. So always make sure your batter posts are corrosion free, even if it doesn't look like it they still may not be getting a good connection.
BTW make sure the wing nuts on the posts are on as tight as u can possibly turn them. That will help BIG time.

AS for which battery I dont know. FYI, ours was wired to the starter, not sure if yours is the same.

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And keep those hooks sharp!

[MuleSkinner]

The best thing I ever did was to rewire all my accessory panel to my trolling battery. Originally, was all wired to the starting battery. If I fished a long time without using the gas engine, I would often have a dead starting battery. I think low amp users like GPS and Depth Finder and lights and radio are killers on starting batteries. Especially lights when fishing at night. I believe Deep Cycle batteries are tailor made for steady low amp devices...

I used 6 gauge wire to run from the trolling battery to the panel. Believe overkill in wiring is usually a good thing. Only thing the starting battery does is turn over the gas engine. Have not had a dead battery since. (I have a 12 volt trolling motor. Suppose wiring would be a little trickier on a 24 volt dual battery setup.)