Demonick's Kayak Fishing Pages: Battery & Power Plug mounting

Home           Last updated Sunday, 2009-07-12
Fishfinders, GPS, charting systems, etc., require power. Ocean Kayak Prowler Trident 13 Angler kayaks come with a battery bag and mounting hardware. The bag opens with a zipper at one end and provides a hole for cabling exit. The bag is mounted inside and hangs from 4 straps mounted with stainless steel bolts, washers, and nylock nuts. Ocean Kayak has its own recommendations for battery bag placement, but I mounted it as far into the bow as feasible. Since the battery needs to power an external Fishfinder I installed a marine grade cigar style power receptacle in the forward wall of the sonar shield well. I forgot to take photos of everything before installation so below is only finished installation, but you can get the idea.

  1. This photo shows the placement of the mounting hardware for the 4 battery bag straps. The forward two are about 6" apart and the rear two are abeam the forward hatch strap padeyes. By really cinching up and shortening the forward two straps, this placement put the battery bag forward of the hatch and still allowed enough room in the hatch for both wheels of a Wheelez cart. The washers supplied with the bag are rubber backed, and I felt, rather small, so I added some stainless fender washers. You can see the supplied washer on top of the fender. Overkill? You decide.


  2. This photo shows the interior strap mount. The supplied hardware did not include a washer for the strap, so to prevent the possibility of the strap pulling over and off the nylock nut I added a fender washer to each interior strap mount. The guys at my local ACE hardware are restocking their stainless hardware for me.


    This photo taken through the forward hatch looking forward shows the installed battery bag. You can see the cable exiting the hole at the bottom of the bag, and the stick on cable stay (upper right) keeping the cabling neat and up inside the gunwale.


    This photo shows the marine grade cigar style power receptacle installed in the forward wall of the sonar shield well. The fishfinder is to be mounted using a Scotty compact deck mount and extension arms. The power cable for the fishfinder has the male power plug on one end and the connector to the fishfinder on the other. Also the battery charger has a similar, though not marine grade, male plug so I can charge the battery without removal from the boat.


    This photo shows the marine grade cigar style power receptacle from the interior. It is hard to see, but the connectors are shrink wrapped, then each end of the shrinkwrap is sealed with Marine Goop. You can also see a stick on cable stay at top left. Visible in the background is a Scotty bilge pump, some pool noodles, and a semi-inflated beach ball stuffed in the stern. Other pool noodles are also stuffed in the interior, and these items provide flotation for the boat if it gets swamped.


    This photo shows the instructions for the installation of the marine power plug. If you get this particular plug carefully study the diagram and play with the parts. I found the mounting counter-intuitive.


    This photo shows the marine grade cigar style power plug. It has a rubber grommet, indicator LED, and internal fuse. An internal fuse is very important when using electricity in a wet environment. A hot wire can melt through a boat.