www.iFourWinns.com

So I am hoping you guys have some good advice here and I can go out for the weekend without worries.
The plan is leave tomorrow morning for 2 overnights on lake mead. Mostly we will be fishing overnight, so that will require battery power all night to run the lights (anchor, bow, and some cabin lights non-led yet), fishfinder, and maybe a underwater fish camera (dad brought his.)

I am worried that I will not have enough battery to run this all night and still start-up in the morning. So my plan is to switch to battery 1 for the night...if it starts to run low...or maybe every couple of hours start her up and let her charge for 15 minutes or so...but won't really be able to cruise around since it will be the middle of the night and I really only have the bow and stern lights (no spotlight except a handheld) In the morning I would run the boat around the lake charging the batteries again and getting ready for the next night of fishing.

Do you think this will work? Is there something I am missing or a better way?

I know this isn't exactly a fishing boat...but you gotta work with what you got.

Thanks,

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Chris and Alicia
Las Vegas, NV
ALTIVA
1996 Four Winns 238 Vista Dlx 5.8Fi

I'd think that you'd be fine. I can usually last all night with just the mandatory anchor light (stern light) burning. Thing is, I'm running the refrigerator off 12 V as well. Just stick to one battery, and check it every now and then. I purchased one of those jumper packs too that I pack for any overnight stay. I've never had to use it on the Vista, but have on my previous boat.

Guess I would be running the fridge as well...3 days of food we need to keep cool. The coolers are reserved for fish! hehe

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Chris and Alicia
Las Vegas, NV
ALTIVA
1996 Four Winns 238 Vista Dlx 5.8Fi

You could consider taking a battery out of one of your vehicles to take along as a back up if you can't borrow or can't justify purchasing a battery jumper pack.

On our previous boat, I pulled our car battery once since we planned on being on the "hook" for a couple nights and took that car battery with us - just in case.

As you probably already know, be careful of fumes in the bilge if you did need to jump batteries.

Mike.

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Current Boat
- 2001 Four Winns 328 Vista "Hour Decision"
- 2010 310 Mercury Inflatable

Previous Boats
- 30' Doral Prestancia
- 25' Doral Citation

Def a jump pack. I have used mine a handful of times, once for me (dead battery at dock), and the other times for stranded boaters. Make lots of new friends that way....and they usually pay in beer.

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1996 205 Sundowner DLX
5.0FL Volvo SX Cobra
Tow Veh: 2012 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X

Or if you don't want to touch your car battery, if you have a lawn tractor you could take that for a backup. not the tractor just the battery....
One trick to keep the fridge from running constantly is to freeze a gallon of water at home and leave that in the back of your fridge. It will take up room but you can always use it for drinking water when it melts.

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--2002 3880 Regal Flybridge | Twin Merc 8.1HO **Seven**
--2003 AB 13 VST Console Inflatable | Tohatsu 40hp TLDI **Phish'n ski**
--310 Mercury Inflatable | 1982 9.9 Johnson

Great idea!

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1996 205 Sundowner DLX
5.0FL Volvo SX Cobra
Tow Veh: 2012 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X

That's hilarious...a lawn tractor in Las Vegas...hehe

I have used the frozen water trick before good tip. I actually freeze my bottled water and Gatorade and put them all in there.

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Chris and Alicia
Las Vegas, NV
ALTIVA
1996 Four Winns 238 Vista Dlx 5.8Fi

HA! Didn't think of that. What about your snow blower battery.

_________________
--2002 3880 Regal Flybridge | Twin Merc 8.1HO **Seven**
--2003 AB 13 VST Console Inflatable | Tohatsu 40hp TLDI **Phish'n ski**
--310 Mercury Inflatable | 1982 9.9 Johnson

Yep, jump pack.

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Current Boat: 2000 Four Winns 298 Vista
Previous Boat: 2000 Carver 406MY

Or get you one of these. Finally found one for 650 on craigslist. Guy bought it new and it wasnt big enough.




Honda2000 by rick2752, on Flickr

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2001 Four Winns Vista 248 by rick2752, on Flickr

I second this!! I had one on my Larson. It can run 8-10 hours on a gallon of gas on a normal load, and would even run my Air overnight on the Larson. Would be plenty to keep the fridges running on AC, and the battery charger running... Bought mine new for $900. Not sure it's an expense you're planning on for this trip, but maybe something to think about for the future.. Wish I had kept mine, but I let it go with the boat when I sold it...

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2004 Four Winns 328 Vista
1997 Larson Cabrio 290 - sold
1988 Rinker Fiesta Vee 248 - sold

Back fro the trip and Dad is now back in NY. We only caught 1 fish...but learned a lot. The first night we were so excited to be on the lake (in a perfect area of the Lake called Temple Bar..just beautiful) that I forgot to switch the battery selector to 1...and left it on both all night. All that was running was the anchor light and the fridge. About 12:00AM a wind picked up that got us both out of bed and on the deck. I ran the engine for close to an hour because I was running my plug-in spotlight desperately trying to see if the anchor was holding. It calmed down in about an hour and I turned off the spot and the engine and we went to sleep. Woke up about 5:00 AM and fished some more. Around 8:00 finally started the boat. No problem.

The Magma grill was awesome...made scrambled egg sandwiches for breakfast and heated water for coffee and made hot dinners, brats and fish (seared Ahi)

The next night I switched to only 1 battery and turned the fridge down as everything was freezing inside, by morning had to switch to both to get it to turn over but still no problem.

So it seems that I have enough battery for long weekends. Wish we would have caught more than 1 fish.

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Chris and Alicia
Las Vegas, NV
ALTIVA
1996 Four Winns 238 Vista Dlx 5.8Fi

Yeah, but you got to spend the weekend with yer old man. Thats what its all about right there.

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1996 205 Sundowner DLX
5.0FL Volvo SX Cobra
Tow Veh: 2012 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X

You're absolutely right! It's also something both of us have always wanted to do. We didn't touch land for over 48 hours...and if we had a choice we probably would have stayed longer.

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Chris and Alicia
Las Vegas, NV
ALTIVA
1996 Four Winns 238 Vista Dlx 5.8Fi