help with fish-finder..

[tippin2back]

i already have a fish camera and im looking to buy a fish-finder for the bob-house,and want to hook both of them up to a car battery. im having a hard time finding one to hook up to a battery..(mostly in-experiance in never owning one)....any suggestions??...what do you use?

[beeverfishing]

If you are referring to a vex or marcum, I believe they come with their own battery.  I see No reason to connect it to a car battery..  But it could be done as both are 12 volt.  Just need to disconnect it from the "included" battery, and connect it to your car battery.  Might need to splice the wires to give them more length (Solder on extentions).  Once again I see no reason for you wanting to do this when they come with good batteries to begin with.  In fact it would be better to run your camera off of this type of battery too.  Much lighter in weight and they will last a long time just running electronics.    But if you insist in using a larger battery, then I would suggest a deep cycle as they are designed to be discharged / recharged many times.  A car battery will work, but possibly wont last as long with the discharge / charging cycles.
All open water fish finders that I know of run off of 12 volts and are designed to be connected to a battery....Once again, might have to solder on the ends that you would prefer, But I really don't see where your problem is...

[Skipper]

Most of your flashers come with a self contained 7 amp hour deep cycle battery. They will power the unit for up to 24 hours straight. I think you would be better suited to just leave it alone.

[tippin2back]

sounds like good advice...thx

[JIGGIN-]

Yo Tippin,

Your not talking about a flasher but an open water type of a fish finder? I have mine hooked up to a marine battery and the cables are permanent. The good news is you just hook up your fish finder to the plugs and your all set, off and running. The bad news is you'll need some way to charge you battery ie: take it home at the end of the weekend to charge or use a solar panel.
I gave Houndog a solar panel and told him when he doesn't need it anymore to pass it on. He now has 2 new solar panels on his house (nice house too) so I don't believe he is using the one I gave him anymore. I'll call him and see.
My battery runs my fish finder, lights, radio, & fan. I use my smaller batteries to run my underwater camera and then switch to the marine battery should I need to. I find that my underwater camera burns battery juice so that's why I have it connected to the smaller batteries and bring those home to swap em out with fresh ones the next day. Lighter than carrying a marine battery. Keep in mind my camera rotates so it burns more juice than yours would.
I have a fish finder (eagle) that I can loan you so you can try it out if you'd like for the season or however long and then pass it on. Otherwise I would go with a Lowrance. I have an older X85 that works awesome. Show's fish most of the time before the camera does and then I pan to find them.
They all hook up to a 12 volt battery, I believe and have inline fuse. It's a matter of how you want to run your wires and how to set up your transducer.

Stop by the house, you can see how mines connected.
JIGGIN.

[Thumber]

A 12 volt battery should last you many many hours, the fish finder only use up about 2 -3 amps.

I run my during the winter with a small motorcycle battery that I charge twice a season

[Skipper]

A guy can even buy a Vex style battery fairly reasonable. I think they run under $20. They are nice and compact, and they wont leak.

[tippin2back]

yeh, not looking for a flasher....my plan is to find them on the "finder"...then turning on the "camera".....jiggin,def. we will hook up, ill try after work sometime next week........thx for all the info guys...