Flat Battery

[gwebb]

I have a Fibreglass boat that I havn't used for 3 months over the winter months. During this time I have disconnected the battery and when I went to start the motor today the battery had enough power for the tilt electric motor to work but not enough power to turn the outboard motor over. My question is, is it possible for the battery to lose power over this time or can I assume the battery is buggered and I need a new one???

[harry]

err, yes, and yes depending on how old it actualy is.
give it a good long charge and re assess after that. if it still was able to power the tilt, it wasn't totally flat.
you might also like to try turning the outboard motor by hand at the flywheel and see if that is able to turn, as if that cannot be turned by hand, there may be a bigger problem.

[seano87]

Also check the connections to the battery - a few weeks ago the tilt would work on mine, but wouldn't kick at all so suspected it was almost flat - gave the terminals a good scrub to get rid of a thin layer of corrosion and kicked first go after that.

But as Harry said, they can lose charge a little over time. Make sure the cells are full of fluid too, slow evaporation over a few months and it won't be doing much so might need a top-up and good slow charge.

Seano

[crump]

buy yourself one of those smart chargers, its cheaper than replacing batteries.Any battery not being used should cop a full charge every month or so.