TOPIC:

What do you guys do with your batteries over the winter? Pull them or just disconnect?

I disconnect

Bruce

I pull them.

Pull them and keep them in a nice ambient temp setting somewhere around 70 degrees. Trickle charge a time or two in the winter or preferably the whole time. A battery's enemy is deep discharge. The more often this happens, the shorter the life. If they discharge too much, it might be over for them all together in one winter. A battery self discharges less when its cold, but in extreme cold can cause major issues. If you want batteries that last, keep them inside and charged in the winter, simple as that.

Also as an FYI, I would always suggest using the largest battery (batteries) you can fit in your boat. Why? The larger the reserve capacity, the longer it lasts under operation, the less you discharge, the longer it lasts overall. In other words, if you discharge a larger battery less than a smaller battery, it will last much longer. Sure the initial investment is a bit larger, but if it lasts 6-7 years versus 3 or 4 (or less depending on usage), there are a ton of savings, reliability, and performance to be realized.

Second to bringing the battery or batteries inside, would be to leave them in the boat outside, making sure they are on a charger all times. This will keep them charged, and warmer vs. the cold, outside conditions. While this is probably just as good as bringing them in, you never know when a breaker trips, battery charger craps out etc. Then they are left in the boat, likely with some sort of load on them, and eventually discharge in the cold. Bad news if this happens. If you do this, just make sure you check the charging regularly and you will be fine.

I also pull them and keep them above freezing on a smart charger.

I pulled them in the past but figured with keeping the boat in my own garage this winter I was going to just connect them to the battery charger and leave them on that the entire winter.

I leave them in the boat and charge them once a month. So far so good.