Cabela's battery life?

Picked up one of the ever popular Cabela's batteries to finally mount my Christmas sonar.  Charged it for the recommended time on Tuesday, went out today to play with the install and it only lasted a minute or two.  Does this battery typically discharge itself w/ no cables attached or ?  Curious how long a fully charged battery should last.

This is the battery in question for anybody wondering

http://cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0036388018049a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCHFEAT_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Products&QueryText=battery&sort=all&Go.y=0&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23&Go.x=0&_requestid=265056

Thx.

did you charge it first?

I can usually get several 6+ hr trips in before I think to charge it. Also double check your wiring didn't come loose...

Yeah, fully charged it (well, assumed fully charged since the charger goes by time and has no feedback) and connections were A-OK.  Hope I didn't get a bad one, Cabela's ain't exactly close

Edit: Just played around some more and it's staying on full-time now...going to triple check the connections! 

I don't know if this is 100% relevant but I have the same type battery "just no cabelas logo" and I get hours of use from mine. I run lights and my FF with it simultaneously. I picked mine up from sportsman wharehouse in Federal way. I don't know if you are closer to that than cabelas. I don't know about you but if I can find an excuse to "have to go" to cabelas I will go if I "have to" 

I've had mine a couple of years now, and it consistently gets at least an hours use for an hours charge. I usually charge it about 5 hours when it gets down to 12 volts, and that brings it up to about 12.4 volts, enough for a couple of days fishing! What was the volt reading on your FF after your first charge?

If the battery is fully charged, using a DC volt/ohm meter, it will read 13.75 volts.
Some "sealed" batteries can still be checked with a hydrometer....the specific gravity of each cell is tested to see if they are all close in value.....this is a very reliable test of the condition of the battery.
I use a Fisher Price 12 volt, 9.5 amp hour battery.....the kind you find powering the electric "Barbie cars" for children....the lid is really glued on, so I rely on the voltmeter test.
The battery charge made for this battery is fully automatic and you can't over charge the battery.

I've yet to fully drain my Cabela's battery after a full charge.  The most I've done thus far is 3 consecutive days of 8hr sessions before recharging.  I usually just connect the charger after dinner the night before I plan to use it or depart on a trip and pack it up in the morning (8-10hrs on the supplied charger). 

Definitely recheck all your connections and make sure to disconnect the battery between uses to conserve the charge.

just my two cents;

i bought one two years ago.. charged it...and the sainted thing sat in storage until this past week..

while putting my FF on my T15, i realized i needed to check function, pulled it out, looked at it, thought, "yeh right never in a gazillion years"... for shits and giggles i attached it any ways, and the 788C powered right up! so after finishing the install this weekend, i used it several more times while constructing the battery box and wiring. still powered up the FF..

for me, knowing how many of us have these batteries, and how reliable they are, even after many years of use, if anything goes wrong now and it doesn't power up, i'm gonna check my connections first ....

I'm now using a backup Dewalt 12 volt drill battery as my last battery got wet and stopped working. This little drill battery has really impressed me as it will run for at least 10-12 hours(lights off) on one charge. It sounds to me like you got a faulty battery. Maybe you should just return it to Cabela's and grab a new one.
Good Luck!

I too have the Cabela's 12v 8ah battery.  Been close to two years with it now, and can get several 8 hour days on it between charges with the back light on (Cuda 250).  I just forget to turn off the backlight.

'dood,

so, what did you find wrong with your system?

No clue actually.  Same connections, same charge, now it's working A-OK consistently - or at least it was yesterday.    Really odd as the first few times it only stayed on for a few minutes.  Writing it off as one of those PEBKAC type issues my dad seems to have with his computer.

PEBKAC - problem exists between keyboard and chair

LMAO- PEBKAC....