how do you charge batteries?

[hercamer]

I just bought my first "real" boat, a 1997 Tidecraft Wildfire 120 with a suzuki 115HP EFI 2-stroke engine. My question is how do I go about charging my batteries. I have 3 total, 2 for the trolling motor and 1 for the engine. Does the motor have an alternator to charge the battery that starts the engine or do I need to hook the charger up to it also? How do I hook up a charger to the two batteries that run the trolling motor and the fish finder? What kind of charger do I need? Any suggestions would be greatly appriciated!

 

[rickdb1boat]

Re: how do you charge batteries?

You could get an onboard charger with 3 banks that will charge them all when plugged in. This is handy if you only run the boat once in a while or during storage. It will keep all the batteries topped up and charge your deep cycle batteries after use. The engine does have a charging system that will maintain the charge in the starting battery for the most part(Not sure how many amps. your system puts out). I have 2 batteries and use a 2-bank onboard charger for both. Here's an example of what's available. Of course, you could just buy a regular charger and charge them individually, too. It sounds like you may have a 24 volt trolling motor that would require a different charging set-up...Let us know what you have...

http://www.iboats.com/mall/index.cgi?keywords=battery%20charger&session_id=413636533&cart_id=800107502&list_time=1162582595&view_id=38914 ] Click Here [/url]

 

[Pescadora]

Re: how do you charge batteries?

I have a rig like the original poster. A Minnkota Power Drive 70# thrust, 24v with two size 27 deep cycle batteries. An F150 which puts out around 20am at idle to charge a size 24 cranking battery. Since I use this rig a LOT (258 hours so far this year). I needed something special for recharge.

I selected a Dual Pro Extreme charger, which will charge the trolling batteries with AC. The key feature is that it taps into the cranking battery with a sensing circuit. When the cranking battery hits 13.7v, it switches on an inverter to power the charging system for the trolling batteries. When the voltage hits 12.8, it cuts off and lets the main motor recharge the cranking battery again.

Very sweet for my usage, since I use the main motor to troll and the trolling motor with copilot to steer.

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: how do you charge batteries?

[colour=blue]I selected a Dual Pro Extreme charger, which will charge the trolling batteries with AC. The key feature is that it taps into the cranking battery with a sensing circuit. When the cranking battery hits 13.7v, it switches on an inverter to power the charging system for the trolling batteries. When the voltage hits 12.8, it cuts off and lets the main motor recharge the cranking battery again.


You are robbing yourself of amps, the way it is setup is very inefficient. Instead of an inverter you could simple use a VSR, that would do the same job without the inefficiency of the inverter. Only use the AC charger when plugged into shore power.

 

[hercamer]

Re: how do you charge batteries?

I think if I remember right the guy I bought the boat from said it was setup for 12V, so would that make a difference on how to charge it?

 

[Pescadora]

Re: how do you charge batteries?

[colour=blue]I selected a Dual Pro Extreme charger, which will charge the trolling batteries with AC. The key feature is that it taps into the cranking battery with a sensing circuit. When the cranking battery hits 13.7v, it switches on an inverter to power the charging system for the trolling batteries. When the voltage hits 12.8, it cuts off and lets the main motor recharge the cranking battery again.


You are robbing yourself of amps, the way it is setup is very inefficient. Instead of an inverter you could simple use a VSR, that would do the same job without the inefficiency of the inverter. Only use the AC charger when plugged into shore power.

The "inverter" circuitry is inside the charger... In fact, it may not be an inverter...whatever, it charges the trolling batteries while running the main motor, autoswitching off and on depending on cranking battery voltage.