[pimpadelic]

has anyone tried to use one of the starting/deepcycle batteries in their boat? i was going to add a deepcycle battery and put in a switch. but has anyone tried the dual purpose batt?

[SEMIJim]

IMO: For casual power-boating use, in a smaller power-boat, a dual-use battery is fine. That's what I just installed on our Barchetta.

But understand: It won't do one very important thing that a two-battery system with a switch will do: Prevent you from running-down the battery and leaving yourself w/no starting reserve. Nor will you have a back-up should your one-and-only battery suddenly go bad.

If you're just on small, in-land lakes where there are people around all the time, probably NBD. But out on the big lakes, or in open seas, not recommended.

I'm probably going to back-stop our single battery with a good jump box.

Jim