Another battery question

[Neverenough]

I'm going to do a 2000 watt amp for a 12 and was wonder your thoughts on switching to those big 2150 Stingers. Two enough or should I do 4 or is it even worth the money?. I've been explained that the big batteries are similar to a capacitor and by not having them low voltage can smoke a big amp.

[Neverenough]

I guess I should add that total all amps are 3800 watts, If that's even how you do this?

[MLA]

Really depends on how you intend to use the boat. Will this be play time at anchor or mostly while underway? I like to estimate the DC current draw, rather than use the AC watts output.

[Neverenough]

Really depends on how you intend to use the boat. Will this be play time at anchor or mostly while underway? I like to estimate the DC current draw, rather than use the AC watts output.

We do a lot of both. Usually we spend 10 to 12 hours a day on lake on Saturday. We go out early to avoid the crowd to get surfing/riding in and then head to party cove when water gets beat up. We are not usually the boat that's blasting the cove though.

Whats the best way to figure out DC current draw?

Thanks for your help.

[MLA]

The easy way is to add up the amps' chassis mounted fusing, or the suggest fuse size for those amps that do not have a chassis mounted fuse. this account for the amp's peak potential draw. Although that draw is a bit unrealistic, it builds in some extra reserve Ah to the battery bank.

You will certainly wan to consider shore charging for when the boat is put away after each trip.

[Neverenough]

Thanks for your help as always!

[vanhanbr]

I've never had good luck with batteries until I switched over to using golf cart batteries They are 6V, so you need 2 of them wired in series. Noco makes a very nice, heavy duty box that houses both of them. I buy refurbished ones at Interstate battery for $75 a piece. Trojan T-145 would be your gold standard at $200. They are not AGM though, so they need to stand upright.

[gobluemike2142]

How about Blue Sea Systems "Add-a-Battery"? Anyone with info on these? I am leaning this way as it appears to be a pretty bulletproof way to charge both batts when underway, play music at the sandbar on the deep cycle, keep optimal cranking power all without having to switch anything. I'm a first time boat owner and I tried to do a bunch of research on this and this is the result I think I'll go with unless some of the more knowledgeable buys on here think different. Thoughts?

[MLA]

The blue sea add-a-battery setup is a great setup for small house banks, like under 200Ah. Its a manual/passive system as compared to a traditional 1/2/BOTH thats 100% manual.

[gobluemike2142]

MLA, couple JL amps (like 400/4 and a 750/1) on a single blue top (or other similar batt). What do you think?

[Neverenough]

I went with 4 Fullrivers. Should help the boat ride good!! These things are heavy!!!