Re: battery charger question
I was looking at the minn kota battery charger, on there web site. and seen two types, the on board charger and a on board DC alternator charger that charges from the alt. on the motor, has anyone used this type charger
Yeah, I think that was missed here, the Minnkota DC "alternator" charger. I looked at one of those, but decided against it as it's charging capacity is limited to something like 10 amps/bank, that's not much when you have to charge a depleted battery. Lets say you depleted a battery by 100AH battery, it would take the MK DC charger
10 HOURS to top that battery back off again. That's running the engine for 10 hours at sufficient RPM to charge.
I think they made those for people running and gunning between fishing holes, to help put some charge back in the trolling batteries. My perception, they will help extend the run time of trolling motor batteries, but are not intended to completely recharge the batteries. IE: you might get a couple extra hours out of your TM batteries, if you run around for a couple of hours...
I would install a 120V onboard charger first, so you can easily keep the batteries charged up on land or at the dock. Then if you want to charge the trolling battery(s) while on the water, add an
ACR automatic charging relay. Bettery yet, use their
Add A Battery kit so you can use the trolling battery to start your main engine off the trolling battery, in case the main battery fails.
