Jump to content
  • GUESTS

    If You  want access  to member only forums on FM, You will need to Sign-in or  Sign-Up now .

    This box will disappear once you are signed in as a member.

  • 0

Voltage Q


EBass

Question

I have 2 Trojan 27 series batteries that are almost 1 and a half old. I kept them inside and charged over the winter.

After I charged them and let them sit for a day the voltage reads 12.51 for both. Should that be higher or is that about right?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 answers to this question

Recommended Posts

  • 0

Checking a battery without applying a load doesn't tell you too much. Place a low power load such as a light bulb on the battery and then check voltage. It should hold quite close to the battery's rating. I assume you have a 12v battery so you should see very close to 12v. A near dead battery may show full voltage without a load applied.

How much capacity your battery has left on the other hand is not something you can determine by this test.

Bob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Yo EB, get them Trojans all polished up and ready to go. Open water can’t be too far away!

As for the batteries, I would say that 12.5 volts is good on a charged battery but as BobT mentioned, testing with no load is not the best way to tell how good the batteries are. If you connected a light bulb to a fully charged battery and your voltmeter went down to 12 volts, the battery is shot. A single light bulb would not draw enough current to suck a good battery down that fast. If you have the time and are concerned about the condition of the batteries, I would fully charge them overnight and then take them to a Batteries Plus store. They will put the computerized load tester on them for free.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

They are in the boat and are on the on-board charger as I type. They are as charged as they are going to get. I sure hope I don't need to get new ones this year. I assume that I will. mad.gif

Are the Optima batteries the cats meow for the price?

Thanks GJ

And I was on open water last Sat. It was nice casting as far as I could, fishing sucked though. Pool 4 was the place.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Hi EBass, confused.gif

Boat batteries can be a real pain. They don't have the same life span as the battery in your personal vehicle because of the beating they have to take. Extreme vibrations is one of the worst enemies of the conventional lead acid battery. Even trailering your boat down a bumpy gravel road (ever been up to the NW Angle) will cause the batteries to fail.

If the battery is mechanically shocked hard enough, the plates will actually separate from the buss and although the voltage reading will still appear good, the battery will not have sufficient capacity to run a starter motor or trolling motor for very long.

If you have gone shopping for batteries recently, you will find that your Trojan brand (and all others) have gone up significantly this year and they blame it on the cost of the materials. As you make comparisons now, the Optima batteries suddenly become more in line with what you are going to have to pay.

The Optima 'Beer Can' style batteries are much more shock resistant due to their construction, are completely maintenance free (no water to add) and are very suitable as a replacement for the conventional battery.

Happy shopping,

Jack

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Hope this link does not depress you. Looks like you are only getting about 75 percent charge. Then again how accurate is the meter you are testing it with. Best thing to do is to have it load tested at a battery shop or test it with a hydrometer.

Battery Life

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

I called Batteries Plus and you ain't kidding the price went up. The Trojan 27's are $130. I paid $75 last time. The guy said something about China and we are taxing them so the price jumped and will continue to rise.

So yup - I'll roll with Optima (when I save up for them - $189 a piece) yikes!

Thanks for the posts fellas!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.


  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.