How Much Juice Do I Need?

[Papa drew]

I am new to all this but from what I have read and seen Andy knows his stuff. He just did my bait tank and next month I will get me that mark 4 ff. look out bait fish here I come. Do you all hold any tournaments on the biggest mackerel caught?

Papa Drew

Damn Andy, you might as well have a throne for you to sit in at the shop!

I ran my Live well and fish finder on 1 battery on my Stealth and it lasted me pretty much all day, sometimes two trips totaling 6-7hours each. Keep in mind, you only need to keep the live well running when you actually have bait! Duh.

Second, regarding the bilge pump. I would go with the hand pump because it will require you NOT to have to penetrate the hull and the only reason it won't work is user error. What happen if in an emergency you take on water and your connections are messed up, or your battery is dead or for whatever other reason, the pump doesn't come on? Also, if your bilge pump is set up aft, and you go bow heavy, your pump is doing you no favors.

It's also must more cost effective and takes up almost no space. If you're concerned about space, a bilge SPONGE is another good option. It's not as effective but can save you in a squeeze.

[Baja_Traveler]

+1 what Drake said. I always throw one of those big sponges under the hatch even though I have a manual bilge pump. Pumps won't get the sand out of the hull that invariably creeps in from beach launches, where a sponge will.

I run both my FF and bait tank on one battery, and they will last all day if I'm careful to not run them when not needed.

When I fish the bay bass tournaments and want both running all day long (I use the bait tank as a livewell until the weigh boat comes around), or I've got the kayak down in Baja, I have a flexible 11 watt solar panel I bungie to the fore deck that keeps the battery going indefinitely so long as the sun is shining.

Running a 6 volt battery for the bait tank is a good idea though, since the typical bait pump puts out more water than is needed at 12 volts. For me it's just easier to keep everything at 12 volts for ease of solar charging.

[Iceman]

Lots of right ways to do it, this is just what I like to use.

[William Novotny]

The new 6volts andy has at oex are awesome. 1 charge will literally run my bait tank for days and I have a 500gph tsunami pump. I havent run the battery dead yet so I cant say for certain just how much life they have in them but its alot. And very fairly priced.

[tima597]

Thanks for all the input guys! Sounds like a trip to OEX is needed.

[jorluivil]

Just don't get to much juice..........or else
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