Prostar Battery Recommendation

[Mastercrafter]

Need a new battery for my 2015 Prostar. It's got a $100 Menard's Marine battery in it which has lasted a few years and seems to start fine, but what are all the cool kids using these days? Sometimes the current battery seemed to crank a little slow, some decent CCA sure can't hurt. 

 

 

[BraceMaker]

I just use autozone myself.  Never very far from an autozone and I've never had a battery that lasted one year not last five.  Where as I've had optimas that weren't in stock at a local store go bad inside of their warranty and had to buy something else to get by.  So I just go for what you can buy at whatever your closest auto parts chain is.

[wski1831]

I have a 17 mastercraft. I've had good luck with Interstate. That being said I replaced my battery last year before it went bad.

[2Valve]

My current automotive style battery is going on 8 years. Got it at Costco if I recall. If it fails, I carry an Anti Gravity XP-1 Micro-Start.

$300 -$400 Optima's are a bit of an overkill IMHO

[jpwhit]

The slow starting on the 2014 - 2020 ProStars is because the battery is all the way in the back and the battery cables are very long. A higher CCA battery isn't going to improve it because the cables are the limiting factor, not the battery. I'm planed to move my battery in my 19 ProStar to the front, but I just haven't gotten to it yet. 

[Windsurfnut]

How do you use the boat?  Start/stop all the time only or hang out with radio running?  Aftermarket stereo, subs?  

I've had a Blue OPTIMA Starting battery for years (8?) that is a bulletproof starting battery.  For a ski boat that starts and stops all the time, and doesn't run accessories while off that have large loads for long periods, its been the best option.

On another boat, that often sits at the local sand bar with tunes running and big subwoofers, I use the Exide Dual Purpose AGM batteries.  They take a beating with heavy loads and deep discharges and still start the 502ci engine.  These have been WOW batteries for me, never had I such long discharge times and good recovery.    On the same boat the OPTIMA Deep Cycle batteries did not last very long.

 

[Cnewbert]

@jpwhit hmmm… hard to imagine our ‘20 starting any faster. It’s virtually  instant.  We have the original Optima Blue Top and have 420 hours on the boat, so it get used a fair amount 

[paul]

4 hours ago, jpwhit said:

The slow starting on the 2014 - 2020 ProStars is because the battery is all the way in the back and the battery cables are very long. A higher CCA battery isn't going to improve it because the cables are the limiting factor, not the battery. I'm planed to move my battery in my 19 ProStar to the front, but I just haven't gotten to it yet. 

Agree with @jpwhit . After a year our battery started cranking slow with the 6.2L. I’d just put in thicker cables.

[Mastercrafter]

1 hour ago, Cnewbert said:

@jpwhit hmmm… hard to imagine our ‘20 starting any faster. It’s virtually  instant.  We have the original Optima Blue Top and have 420 hours on the boat, so it get used a fair amount 

You were having slow start issues though, no? What did you chase down to fix that one?

I picked up another $100 Menards battery tonight.. current one has a 2019 date on it, so if I get 4-5 years on this, good enough. didn’t realize optima were so spendy!

[Cnewbert]

@Mastercrafter yes I did a while back.  The problem was the fuel pump, or the check valve in the fuel pump if I recall correctly. The fuel pressure would drop after initial power up and the engine would have to crank an additional second or two to restore pressure. Warranty replacement. 

[jpwhit]

We may be having a terminology disconnect. By slow, I mean the engine doesn't turn over as quickly (RPMs) during starting as it does on my other boats or cars. I don't mean that it takes long to start, it actually starts pretty quickly. When I hear the slow starting RPMs, it makes me feel like the battery is on it's last leg, but that's not the case. It's just the voltage drop on the long cables that make the starting RPMs lower than on most engine. 

If by slow, you mean it takes a long time for the engine to start, then that may be something else, such as the fuel pressure dropping like @Cnewbert is talking about. 

[chrislandy]

In all my years boating, a battery is a battery, as long as it has enough capacity to stop/start a few times then the cheaper the better. Use it all summer, trickle charge in winter. Move it to the jump ramp and buy another when it's buggered.

[epnault]

Great luck with this battery and is the same our dealer puts in all new boats.  I got 6 seasons and probably could have gone more but the cranking was reduced.

https://www.interstatebatteries.com/products/24m-xhd

Interstate 24M-XHD

[jhughes]

The DI motors tend to crank slow, that I've noticed at least. They run a lot of compression, maybe that has something to do with it.

No reason to buy anything fancy, I have a Wal Mart Everstart from 2011 that is still going strong in one of our boats.

A load tester is the key to determining if a battery is still good, great tool to have for sure.

[Jerry44]

On 4/26/2023 at 3:55 PM, jpwhit said:

The slow starting on the 2014 - 2020 ProStars is because the battery is all the way in the back and the battery cables are very long. A higher CCA battery isn't going to improve it because the cables are the limiting factor, not the battery. I'm planed to move my battery in my 19 ProStar to the front, but I just haven't gotten to it yet. 

I'd be curious to know exactly where you're going to put it.  I might consider that myself.

[Horton]

 interstate 24mxhd batteries or equivalent

[jpwhit]

12 hours ago, Jerry44 said:

I'd be curious to know exactly where you're going to put it.  I might consider that myself.

I haven't picked an exact location, but somewhere in the storage area under/behind the observer's seat. I'd want to keep it on the port side of the boat to keep the side to side balance the same. It's one of those projects that may never happen because I have so many other projects on my list. Not sure this one will ever bubble to the top. 

[dvskier]

Have you considered replacing the battery cables with a larger gauge? It would seem like a more permanent solution.

[rico]

[jpwhit]

9 hours ago, dvskier said:

Have you considered replacing the battery cables with a larger gauge? It would seem like a more permanent solution.

The ProStar wake improves a little if you put some weight in the nose. General consensus seems to be that's why they moved the battery up front in 2020+ ProStar's. So that's part of my goal, to move a little weight forward. So, adding heavier battery cables would be counter to that goal. And with this length of wire, a larger gauge is surprisingly heavy. 

[Broussard]

@jpwhit I believe the battery was moved to under the observer's seat in order to allow for a larger gas tank and require less battery wiring. 

[Jerry44]

2 minutes ago, Broussard said:

@jpwhit I believe the battery was moved to under the observer's seat in order to allow for a larger gas tank and require less battery wiring. 

Is that on the 2021s and later?

[Broussard]

@Jerry44 Correct, the 2021+ ProStar has a 30 gallon fuel tank compared to a 25 gallon tank in the 2014-2020.

[jpwhit]

11 hours ago, Broussard said:

@jpwhit I believe the battery was moved to under the observer's seat in order to allow for a larger gas tank and require less battery wiring. 

Exactly...

[LeonL]

If you have a Rural King  nearby, you can't beat their warranty or prices.  My theory is get the largest battery that will fit in the hole.

[Mastercrafter]

I ended up going with the $99 Menards marine starting battery as I've used them in the past with decent results, but go figure, I got a dud. Dead on arrival and wouldn't charge. They took the return and I picked up a Napa branded battery for about $110, works just fine. 

@jpwhit I was under the impression the battery ground went right to the engine and the "+" cable to one side of the starter, then the rest of the boat's power (to the master switch up front) was drawn off that post. Admittedly, I haven't really looked and followed the cables. Are you pretty certain the + goes all the way up front then back to the starter? 

[BraceMaker]

Has to go up if it's a battery switch. Unless you want the power switch to not cut off the whole boat... maybe?

Like always if troubleshooting cranking run jumper cables in parallel to the battery wires.

 

Connect ground , connect hot, connect both.  If it doesn't change the start condition its battery or starter I'd it does its a connection.  If it's one or the other it's the wire or the crimp.  If it needs both to start better it's the condition of the whole system and all the wires should be replaced with the largest tinned marine wire you can justify.  As a side note... it's not bad if a boat has say a 2 gauge wire to replace it with large say 0 gauge.  Or you can run a second 2 gauge in parallel with the first.  Either alone is sufficient and 2 gives you redundancy. No real issue

Edited June 7, 2023 by BraceMaker

[DW]

Good results using AC Delco's in years past, most recent is a Deka going on 9 years (holy crap, didn't realize it was that old!).  Usage is ski tractor, no tunes or sitting around with ancillaries going other than blower.  Slightly elevated compression ratio & advanced timing and starter is used after / between each ski set.  Guess I'll give the Deka a double thumbs up:-) although I should go get a new one.

As for moving battery, +1 for a few of reasons, 1 being the 45 lbs moving forward & 2 maybe shorter cables and 3 under the bow seat should be a drier location.  I actually moved y battery farther over to port side to help balance.  It is 'free' ballast if you want to use it that way.