OT: Battery experience

The other night when we were out, I went to crank his motor when he backed the trailer and boat into the water. There was power at dash, but the motor would not crank. At first, I thought that I did not have the throttle in neutral. I messed with that and it still would not crank. Finally, I switched the run/stop button off and then back on. The motor cranked. Later, we experimented and found that the motor will crank in the stop position, but it will not fire. We chalked it up to not being in neutral and that the throttle console may need adjustment.

Next morning, his power trim would not work. So, now what is going on? He pulled out the battery and it had sufficient voltage. So he began checking all of the wiring which was a long tedious process in the hot sun. He could not find anything wrong. Finally, he checked the battery again and it had very little voltage. He had another battery that he dropped in and everything worked fine.

Bottom line, if you jarred the battery, it worked. Jar it again, it would fail. We verified this using my boat just to make sure that it was the battery and not some flaky wiring problem. Neither of us had ever seen a battery fail this way. Apparently, the internal connection between one of the studs and the battery must have a hairline fracture in it. Probably due to bouncing during trailering. Unfortunately, Tracker sells their boats with Interstate batteries which is probably one of the worst batteries on the market.

When diagnosing problems, always look for the simple problem first. In the case of an intermittent problem, that is not always so easy to do.

Jeff

My daughter has landed every big fish she has ever hooked on hew small Okuma combo she won at the boat show.

If I had her success at landing every fish I hooked, I'd be #1 in the club every year.

Brad Coovert 2003 Angler of the Year, Greenfield Bassmasters http://www.greenfieldbassmasters.com

Jeff