Back to the main site

Power assist steering battery

M

MarkBradley25

New Member
Messages
4
Reaction score
4
I have a dual battery on my 2022 25LSB and noticed battery is draining on #2 to the point after one season of use that the battery is too far gone to to a charge. Wondering which battery the steer assist is tied to? Makes sense if it’s battery #2 and it’s draining while driving with 1&2 switched on because the alternator can’t keep up. With assisted power steering, should I switch to #2 battery only while cruising to make sure the battery isn’t being drained? Am I way off on this or does this make sense? I was told by dealer to run on 1&2 while cruising.
 
Welcome to the forum Mark! I was always told (By our dealer, different mechanics, and other boat owners) to use EITHER 1 or 2. Never both unless both batteries are relatively depleted and you need to combine both to be able to start your boat. We usually use battery 1 when leaving the dock and battery 2 when coming back at the end of the day!
 
Have you heard anything about steering assist draining your battery? For instance, if #2 powers the steering, you’d probably need to be running on #2 or you’d deplete the battery. I’m not sure which battery feeds the powered assist steering. Does Bennington set all dual batteries up the same for steering assist?
 
What motor do you have, and what else is drawing power? While underway, you shouldn’t drain and deplete a battery that badly. IF power assist is not being sufficiently powered, you should feel the power assist kicking out. If you are not feeling that, I wouldn’t think power assist is not behind your issue. There are others in here much more on top of these sorts of topics and hopefully they will chime in soon. Also, do a power assist and battery drain search in the upper right hand corner. There have been some topics on this, but they were focused not on batteries draining like this as much as power assist not getting enough juice to operate properly.

All of that said, something’s off here with battery #2 as this is not a normal issue.

FYI: if you look through the forum you’ll see very mixed and diverse views on if you should run only on 1 battery or the other or 1+2. Our dealer stresses running our tritoon, with all its electronics, on the 1+2 position for normal operation. I am unclear on if one or the other is better, or if it might depend on your boating habits (anchoring and play radio all day when not under way, or typically operating electronics when otherwise under power with the motor).

Again though, if you are running 1+2 typically, you should not have this issue with battery #2 going dead unless they don’t have it connected properly and its not getting the recharge from the motor/alternator (assuming you are not sitting with motor off playing radio or running electronics constantly off that battery only).
 
MarkBradley25 said:
Have you heard anything about steering assist draining your battery? For instance, if #2 powers the steering, you’d probably need to be running on #2 or you’d deplete the battery. I’m not sure which battery feeds the powered assist steering. Does Bennington set all dual batteries up the same for steering assist?
Click to expand...
Yes we have had that issue before on this forum. Do a search at the top right hand corner or I'm sure more members will answer when they read this post. There is a wealth of knowledge and experience on this forum! My 1st tritoon was an I/O that had built in power steering. My current boat has a Mercury 150 with hydraulic steering so I'm not familiar with the power assist wiring.....
 
So the big question here is how are they wired? Is the steering pulling directly from the 2nd battery? How is that battery suppose to charge unless you have youre switch set to both. Sounds like you need a charging relay and a different switch
 
Vikingstaff said:
What motor do you have, and what else is drawing power? While underway, you shouldn’t drain and deplete a battery that badly. IF power assist is not being sufficiently powered, you should feel the power assist kicking out. If you are not feeling that, I wouldn’t think power assist is not behind your issue. There are others in here much more on top of these sorts of topics and hopefully they will chime in soon. Also, do a power assist and battery drain search in the upper right hand corner. There have been some topics on this, but they were focused not on batteries draining like this as much as power assist not getting enough juice to operate properly.

All of that said, something’s off here with battery #2 as this is not a normal issue.

FYI: if you look through the forum you’ll see very mixed and diverse views on if you should run only on 1 battery or the other or 1+2. Our dealer stresses running our tritoon, with all its electronics, on the 1+2 position for normal operation. I am unclear on if one or the other is better, or if it might depend on your boating habits (anchoring and play radio all day when not under way, or typically operating electronics when otherwise under power with the motor).

Again though, if you are running 1+2 typically, you should not have this issue with battery #2 going dead unless they don’t have it connected properly and its not getting the recharge from the motor/alternator (assuming you are not sitting with motor off playing radio or running electronics constantly off that battery only).
Click to expand...
Running 300 Mercury. Heading out this weekend with a new battery. Had dealer take a look at the wiring, but only told that old battery (13 months old) was bad….warranty was only good for 1 year, go figure. Thanks for the info.
 
Yeah, a 300 HP Mercury alternator is powerful. If you are running on 1+2, you should NOT have any issues with battery drain and recharging while running. Any chance anything is hooked up directly to battery 2 and causing a parasitic drain? Maybe it was just a weirdly bad battery from the start? Bad Perko switch? Did they say the wiring was all hooked up properly or if they needed to adjust something in that regard?

Anyhow, just speaking to the power assist steering aspect, that shouldn’t be behind your battery 2 going bad prematurely issue. FYI: What Bennington are you running with that very nice Mercury? Any pictures? We all love seeing newer members boats or frankly anyone’s boats around here.

Have a great weekend out and let us know if everything seems resolved. Always good collectively learning from one another’s situations.
 
Last edited:
Vikingstaff said:
Yeah, a 300 HP Mercury alternator is powerful. If you are running on 1+2, you should NOT have any issues with battery drain and recharging while running. Any chance anything is hooked up directly to battery 2 and causing a parasitic drain? Maybe it was just a weirdly bad battery from the start? Bad Perko switch? Did they say the wiring was all hooked up properly or if they needed to adjust something in that regard?

Anyhow, just speaking to the power assist steering aspect, that shouldn’t behind your battery 2 boing bad prematurely issue. FYI: What Bennington are you running with that very nice Mercury? Any pictures? We all love seeing newer members boats or frankly anyone’s boats around here.

Have a great weekend out and let us know if everything seems resolved. Always good collectively learning from one another’s situations.
Click to expand...

IMG_2534.jpegIMG_2522.jpeg
 
Looks like a Beauty! Nice beach spot!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top