Reccomendations for a portable 12v battery?

[rivonia]

Well it would appear the JUMP START PACK would perhaps suite your requirements. You just charge up the lappy and the starter pack before you set off for the boat. The starter pack should be adequate for the LED's and heater.

Good luck

Peter

 

[The Dogs Pollacks Brother]

Jump starter pack.......cant see the problem with running the engine awhile though?

 

[Sybarite]

15mins of engine running or all the other probs

+1

It's good for the engine as well if you run it in gear.

 

[Kelpie]

Yes I will probably run the engine once every week or two. But I'm likely to be on the boat more often than that.
To be honest I'm leaning towards just making sure the laptop is charged when I get there, and letting the solar panel and occasional engine running take care of the lights and heater. Having done the numbers I'm amazed how little current the latter will use.
A jump-start battery does seem like the easiest option if I need more juice, and would be a handy thing to have anyway.

 

[onesea]

I would recommend a Jump pack, buy one with inverter and tire inflator, you can charge them from 240v and 12v. Mine has been used for tires, drains, charging phone & laptop and I think once a jump start to boot!

Then get a small ish solar panel to charge battery for your lights. 10 Watts is cheap and does not require regulator if I understand correct.

As you say make sure you charge laptop & phone before you get onboard...

 

[drewmf]

I've got a motorcycle battery (very lightweight) for emergency use. Attach it to a small solar panel (ebay?) and it should be enough for what you want.

 

[msilburn]

Small golf cart battery

I'm planning to have the boat in a marina without shore power this winter, and will be spending the odd night aboard (without actually going sailing).
I don't want to have to run the engine just to charge the batteries so am looking at getting a smallish 12v battery that I can easily take to and from the boat. It would have to have enough juice to run my LED cabin lights and the laptop charger for an evening.

What sort of Ah should I be looking at? And should I disconnect the current battery bank so that my new little battery doesn't just drain itself into the big batteries immediately?

Laptop should run Ok on it's own battery for an evening. For my electric outboard I use a golf cart battery in a 6 can coolbag (£1 from a charity shop and works a treat.) You can get proper bags . Got mine from here: http://www.tayna.co.uk/15Ah-22Ah-Golf-Batteries-S760-1.html

IIRC the AMG sort are happier than other type when regually moved about

Malcolm

 

[RaymondQuinn]

depends on how far the boat is from the car park,a battery may not be heavy for the first 20/30 yards,but gets VERY heavy after 200.
would you not as has been said,be better to get a secondhand battery from a breakers and then a cheap solar panel to keep it charged on the boat

yes your second way of charging is effective.. I have got a reasonable secondhand battery and a solar panel too..It works nice for me