What could be killing my starting battery?

[Down Deep]

I have a 1999 Lund ProV 1800 with a 150 Yamaha VMax 066. In six seasons I've burned through 4 starting batterys. Most recently a less than 2 year old Interstate 24M 800 cold & 1000 Marine. It crashed last November. Now I'm about to install battery #5.

The livewells, lights, power tilt and motor and one fish finder are the only things that are hooked to the battery. Three years ago at the suggestion of a marine mechanic I installed a MinnKota single bank charger that had all the electronics to keep the battery charged, but that didn't solve the problem as I've been though two batteries. I had the motor and draw checked by a marine dealer and a auto electric shop and both of them told me everything checked out ok. The marine mechanic said that the depth finder had a very low draw and shouldn't be the problem especially with the charger. The boat gets about 40 to 45 days per year. I store it in my garage, do all the necessary battery and terminal maintenance. I pull it and store it indoors for the winter months. The other boats I've owned I replaced a starting battery about once every 5 or 6 years.

Any ideas?????????

[Giant_Jackpot]

Is there any corrosion in the area of the fuse block? Corrosion on the fuses can cause weird things to happen. Are all the ground connections good and clean? How about the switches? There can be corrosion in them to. I know this is all a long shot but it seems that is where you are at. When you say they did a “draw” test does that mean they put an ammeter in line with the battery to see if anything was drawing power when all accessories were off? Good luck….

[deepportage01]

I had the same proplem with my boat and still do. I can't find out ware it is drawing power too.so last year I put in a battery disconect switch.I know that is a hack job but it worked..and now I can fish in peace

[Down Deep]

The marine mechanic put some sort of meter on all the wires. He ran the motor for quite awhile to check for power surges or irratic charging. He said the motor checked out. He also kept it overnight to check for something else. I'll clean up the fuse block.

I run my 24 V deep cycles to death and have gotten three years out of the four I've replaced. I still use two of them to power my ice house. So there is nothing up front causing problems.

Thanks

[bigb56303]

well thats a tough one to figure out, depending on what the dealer used to check things, i guess what i would do is make sure that all of your electrical componets are clean and connections are tight etc. then i guess you need to evaluate some stuff, does the battery go dead while it sits in the garage? how often do you maintain the charge? you may not have a problem with the any components, what about your charging system in your motor, you may have a issue there, not properly charging when running it and it may be bleeding down your battery while not in use, i cant say for sure, but something to look at. or if you want to make sure it doesnt happen any more you could install a switch like someone posted before that will do it. good luck

[Ufatz]

Sorry to be so vague about this, but somewhere in the past few months I read something about the cause of this problem being a component in the Yamaha itself. The problem I read about was in the 115HP. It was some part in the ignition system as I recall. I have had a similar problem with a 115HP and am having it gone through just before I claim my boat from the dealers storage next week. Lets all keep looking for solution. The battery switch is an easy one of course, but if there is a problem with Yamahas systems then THAT should be fixed.

[fish2live]

here is just a shot in the dark do you run a gps unit off of that battery? if so you sould have a seperate togel switch to turn power off to the ant. or it will draw power all the time.

just a thought

steve

[mudlaker]

I had the same problem with my '02 Yamaha 115 4 stroke. It started the first year I had my boat. At first they thought it was just a bad battery and gave me a new one. That got me through the first year. The next year it got a little worse and I went through 2 batteries. Last year I couldn't even run the boat for 2 days in a row with out the battery going dead. Finally they took it in last fall and found that a voltage regulator had burned out. Got it fixed, but haven't had the chance to try it out since it was so late in the year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it solved the problem. I won't have a chance to put it in the water until next weekend. I'll let you know how it goes. If it is fixed I'll pull out the paper work and tell you the exact name of the part that was replaced. Don't know if it will be the same on your motor, but it might be something to have checked out.

[Big Julie]

If you're getting a draw from your battery do what I was told to do:

Disconnect the pos and neg leads on the battery (one set at a time-all the pos. then the neg.) and put one of those indicator lights on each wire to see if it is drawing current.

If your motor, and electronics are off and the light comes on, you have an idea of where it is coming from.

When my battery was draining when sitting, it was my new X-15 graph.

But it could be anything.

[gofishingtom]

down deep, My buddy had a 150 yamaha on a 1775 pro-v and had the same problem on his and had everything checked out and finally put in a battery switch and turns off the switch when down fishing and has not had a problem now for the past 2 years..everything else on motor is fine and hasnt had any problem with his motor in the last 2 years since installing the switch..

[Down Deep]

That seems to be the solution. I purchased a switch today.

Thanks everyone.