I bought a set of 16 footers for like 20 bucks at harbor freight . I also ordered remote jumper posts from summit racing and mounted them in an easy to reach location. My hatch is hydraulic and batteries are in engine room. If they go dead I'm kinda screwed even though pump is mounted outside in a compartment. Cant really put that much power through a tiny gauge wire so opted to remote posts. Happy to say since I did this I haven't needed the cables lol!

^^^ Did you check to see if those cables are rated for the amperage needed and length? When pricing adequate cables, I was in the $80 range and not at HFT.

Thought about cables then killed that idea for a jump box that many on OSO are using. I rather be self sufficient , so between that, Boat US towing and battery switches, I feel I'm covered.

The day you take them out is the day you will need them. Better to have them and not need them...


I keep some on the boat, but one day took them out to use them on the farm for starting the backhoe. (They are long and heavy duty) I then forgot to put them back on the boat and lo and behold, ran the battery dead the next weekend. We found some cables, but they weren't heavy enough to get enough juice to my boat to turn the motor over fast enough and run the electronics to start it. That was a long tow back to the ramp. Quality cables aren't cheap, you need really, really heavy cables to go 20' and start a fuel injected big block. ..

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Exactly. My first outing in the NT lost all battery juice to the engine batteries, amazingly, both alternators were shot. Previous owner ran them in ALL and I guess that tears them up. Anyway, was able to jump the engine batteries from the accessory batteries to make it back to dock. So if you have batteries just for accessories, jumpers can come in handy if you should be so unlucky to lose both engine batteries.

So my wife's boat says to never move the switch while the engine is running or alternator damage may occur. I have always moved the switch from "all" to "2" after I throw anchor before cranking up the tunes. Is this wrong?

Running in ALL is not recommended. I'm sure that's why I had to buy 2 new alternators when I bought my boat. I run port 1 and starboard 2. ALL when boat is off and on shore power.

I have a single engine boat with dual batteries. I always run "all". I park and listen to the radio on all as well. Never have an issue. My diesel truck has 2 batteries wired the same way. I dont get why its an issue.

^^^^Dual engines, each has a battery switch...put on all combines the two motors.^^^

It's only an issue with 2 engines (2 alternators tied together). One alternator changing 2 discharged batteries can damage the alternator.

How do you know if both batteries are good? One may be crook and you'd never know.
Single engine with two batteries, when you anchor its good to switch to one battery so if you have any problems, you still have the second battery available.

RR