Ah, that eternal battery question.........

[Dave 205]

I see lots of battery questions here, so I thought I'd share my research, and see if there are any comments on my conclusions.

My 2006 205 Sport went into service in spring 2007 for the 1st owner. I bought it this March with about 45 hours on it. It appears to have the original battery as it is punched out Feb 07.

At this point, I don't trust it and and want to replace it. As every Sea Ray owner seems to discover, the boat manual points to the engine manual for battery recommendations, and the engine manual doesn't address it!

I have the 5.0 220 HP carb engine. The battery in it is:

Interstate Cranking Marine RV
24M-XHD
1000 MCA (Marine Cranking Amps?)
800 Cold Cranking Amps.
Reserve Capacity 135.

I have the simple factory Clarion two speaker stereo, and no accessories to speak of.

I went to the Interstate website, and then called the Interstate store. My battery is on the high end of their 24M series batteries. At $108.95, it seems competitive with what I see on the Sears battery website. The posts on this Interstate battery include additional nuts at the pos and neg terminals for the hookup of the constant power source - in this case the stereo memory. I asked about upgrading to the 27M, and the guy said it does not have the additional screw posts.

So, it appears that I will go with a new battery that duplicates my old one.

Does anyone recommend I do something different?

And, I discussed chargers. They have a $49 model that mounts in the boat, and provides a constant monitoring, and charges as needed. The Interstate guy said doing this will preserve my new battery longer.

I hope this info is helpful to someone, or If I'm all wet, let me know your thoughts! :smt001

 

[Angry Ranch Hand]

Have your thought of dual batteries through a Perko selecting switch?
Running your sound system with the engine off you can have the peace of mind you have a isolated battery to get you started if you run one down.
It's actually cheap and simple to do.

We're pulling out our stocker Interstates (putting them in the RV) and putting in the light gray body (deep cycle) blue tops Optimas 31's, and adding a second bank.
The Optima 31's fit in the same space as a standard 27 with 900 AMPS.