Can you jump off a boat battery with a car or should i just buy a battery charger?

Question

Can you jump off a boat battery with a car or should i just buy a battery charger?

Answer 1

You can jump start a boat using a car battery. The thing about that is you are treating a symptom instead of fixing the problem. Your boat motor should have a charging system, so why do you need to jump it in the first place? That should be your question. If either your charging system is not working or your battery is no good, you should have the battery replaced or the charging system fixed. If the battery is just low from sitting over the winter, then it should be fully charged before you use it. If not it causes your charging system to work too hard reducing the life of the charging system. The problem is, you can jump the boat with the car, but that's really hard to do when the boat cuts off out in the middle of the lake, river, ocean, etc.

Answer 2

As long as the boat battery is charged and of the same voltage you can jump a car off of it.  In a crunch you can put a boat battery in a car for a couple of days, or to get to the parts store. ( I have done it ).

Answer 3

YES is the answer! I had this problem last year, battery was a lil old and ran dead-I launched the boat and POOF! It wouldnt turn-over...frustrating to say the least. Ive got pals that are long-time boat owners and they say you can jump boat to boat or car to boat...pull your car up to the front of the dock and tug your boat close enough for your cables to reach! Cabelas and WestMarine sell LONG cables, 18 foot lengths for this reason. You can also disconnect your car battery and use it in place of your marine battery in a jam-just swap them out when you are done~

If this is a re-occuring issue, buy a good charger or a new marine, deep-cycle battery if the previous one is older.

Answer 4

You should buy a jump start. Its a battery with booster cables attached to it. They retail for about $39. And come with a built in charger. They will jump start anything 12volt.

Answer 5

12 volts is 12 volts use ventalation and ground last to the block and not the battery

Answer 6

yes you can use a car battery. If you buy a charger make sure you buy a deep cycle charger. Boat batteries are deep cycle. meaning they can be ran lower and bounce back better. Car batteries are meant to start the car then the recharging begins. Most boat batteries can be run down further with out doing them damage.

Answer 7

I would buy a charger! I have a maintaner on my boat battery runs all winter. When its done shuts off when needed turns back on.

Answer 8

Well if same voltage of course you can but id charge it fully bec that's a better thing to do .

Answer 9

Mate you sure can I've done it countless times, so much so I now disconnect the battery terminals in my boat to stop in running low when its in storage.

Otherwise I have interchanged batteries between my vehicle and boat, most larger sized boats have alternators so when the battery is placed back under the hood it works fine. However mate if you are boating a lot of the time its best to buy a charger, had one instance where the battery was low and a mate ran the prop into weed, couldn't get it started again so I called on the charger.

As far as I see it buy a charger for $80 to $100 bucks and escape the humilation of being so close but yet so far to starting your motor. By the way buy a good brand charger.