New toon owner here

[limestonebeef]

Hello all. My wife and two boys enjoy the area lakes and fishing and have taken the next step. We bought a 1997 Fisher 20' pontoon with a 75hp Mariner. The boat is a little beat up by the weather but the price was right.

The previous owners said the battery would drain in an hour of floating around with the radio on and the fishfinder on, but stays charged good as long as the motor was running. The battery is two years old and is clean with no signs of corrosion. Does this sound normal?

Thanks in advance to your replies. We are looking forward to many years of boating fun!!

[HandymanHerb]

Welcome, glad to have you with us, now where the pictures we love old toons too!

If you need help with pictures or anything boating just let me or anyone know and we will help.

Get a new battery, but first check to see what else is running, that could draw it down, unless you have 500 watts you should be able to go days running the radio without running the battery down, but I would still bet on the battery being bad and having an internal short.

[dockholiday]

Welcome

Just think of a portable radio say running on c or d cells, usually they can run for months. Not sure how much current a fishfinder pulls but would not think it should be much of a draw.
doc

[schmir]

Take the boat and battery to autozone. They can check the battery for free.

[limestonebeef]

I appreciate the responses. I'll probably just buy another battery for a backup.