03 battery placement

[fnshrmaster]

With the 260 and the small charging system I am planning on running a 3 battery system. With the cranking battery in front of the fuel tank, would the two trolling battery's be best in the port wing as far back as possible? ( group 27s)

Are the optima's worth the extra dough? I did get a nice 3 bank charger. Thanks! Kurt

 

[GotMyAlly]

I had two sets of optimas and hated them. Yep, tried 'em twice, errr....fell for the hype twice. For me, they just didn't have enough capacity.

When I had an 03, I liked the batts exactly where you described, one troller in each compartment shoved as far back as I could get it, and cranking batt in front of the gas tank offset to the left side. I also ran it with two optima TM batts in the left compartment and a cranking batt in the right. That setup handled equally well. I did not like it with all batts in front of the gas tank, required too much trim to get the lift I needed with them in front of the gas tank.

 

[fnshrmaster]

I had two sets of optimas and hated them. Yep, tried 'em twice, errr....fell for the hype twice. For me, they just didn't have enough capacity.

When I had an 03, I liked the batts exactly where you described, one troller in each compartment shoved as far back as I could get it, and cranking batt in front of the gas tank offset to the left side. I also ran it with two optima TM batts in the left compartment and a cranking batt in the right. That setup handled equally well. I did not like it with all batts in front of the gas tank, required too much trim to get the lift I needed with them in front of the gas tank.

So you had one troller on each side? I was thinking both trolling battery's would be best in the port side? Regular 27s. Kurt

 

[GotMyAlly]

Yep, I had one in each side, but my 03 was a center steer.....if you've got a side steer, your balance requirements may be different.

 

[fnshrmaster]

It is a side steer, trim pump mounted on the port side of the center compartment along with the cranking battery. It looks like it had one trolling battery in the port side, I will need 2 for the windy lake I fish on. Kurt

 

[catfish123]

When I ran 3 batteries in my XB2003, one trolling battery and the starting battery were in center compartment in front of gas tank. The other was in the rear of the port compartment. That always worked well. I have run just 2 multipurpose batteries now for years with a 24 volt trolling motor and I've never missed the 3rd battery. One is in the rear port side and the other is in front of the gas tank on the port side.