Charging?

[Darrendude]

Can you charge your battery thru your cigarette lighter plug?<br /><br />Thanks

 

[waterone1@aol.com]

Re: Charging?

In theory...yes. However this will be limited by the wiring and fuse of the Cigarette lighter plug.

 

[Darrendude]

Re: Charging?

Limited how? My trolling battery is just really hard to get to. I figured if I wire in a cigarette plug , I could trickle charge it (2amp) thru that.<br /><br />Thanks

 

[ThomWV]

Re: Charging?

Of course not. Your battery is connected to the cigarette lighter and unless perpetual motion machines are now all of a sudden working then you can't do it. <br /><br />I saw a question some fellow posted on another board just last week that asked a similar question. His question was this, "can I use my battery to power an inverter that I would then connect to a battery charger which I would use to charge my battery?" No kidding, he actually asked that question.<br /><br />You could, however, charge your battery from my cigarette lighter outlet, However I wouldn't let you do it because the wire leading up to my cigarette lighter is no where near heavy enough to transmit the sort of amperage that charging even a mildly discharged battery would require. Very few other cigarette lighter recepticles have wire any heavier than the rest of the electrical system in boat (which means that its rarely over about 14 gauge and more often its 16 guage) and its simply inadequate for anything over a couple of amps. Battery charging would generally take more and if unregulated possibly a lot more. We're talking about the possibility of creating instant-smoke here.<br /><br />Thom

 

[KM2]

Re: Charging?

darren, I think it would work but wouldn't be ideal. If you can, spring for a on board charger, I think mine was around $100. Just plug the boat in when I'm done fishing and forget about it. No hassles.

 

[18rabbit]

Re: Charging?

Trickle charging is only slightly better than not charging at all. Better in the since that it eventually gets a charge into the battery. It is much better suited to maintaining a charge that is already in a battery.<br /><br />You can install a couple remote posts for charging your battery. When the time to fill ‘er up comes, you just clip the charger leads to the remote posts. Personally, I wouldn’t do that. Since you should upgrade to a three-stage charger (the third stage being a trickle charge). If you install it on the boat, it can be hard wired into the system and you won’t have to move you batteries or get access to them every time you charge. Btw, unless you have sealed batteries, you need access to them to check the water level on a regular (monthly?) basis, anyways.<br /><br />Fwiw, I think those cigarette lighter style of outlet plugs should be illegal. They are dangerous as all hell, often with under-sized wire, as Thom mentioned.

 

[Darrendude]

Re: Charging?

thanks guys