how to charge

[andyrmilwaukee]

Ok here is my question, my father (77) lives on a small lake with no way to run power down to the dock, he uses a trolling motor on an old canoe as his way of getting around the lake to do some pan fishing. His house is a farly long way up a steep hill, I am worried about him hauling a heavy marine battery back and forth to charge it, and the terain makes it imposible to use a cart or somthing to haul it. Is there any device that he could charge in the house and take down to the dock to charge it that would be lighter than a marine battery? I know its a long shot.

 

[NYBo]

Re: how to charge

Short of a fairly large solar panel array and controller, there's not much else I can think of that he is going to be able to do other than lug the battery up to where he can charge it with house current.

 

[andyrmilwaukee]

Re: how to charge

yea kinda what i figured thanks for the reply!

 

[andyrmilwaukee]

Re: how to charge

has anyone ever used the solar trickle chargers that you can get from cabelas or some place like that?

 

[magicbronco]

Re: how to charge

A small generator would work good, even if you had to lug it up and down the
hill it would be lighter than the battery.

 

[CheapboatKev]

Re: how to charge

A small generator would work good, even if you had to lug it up and down the
hill it would be lighter than the battery.

Thats all I can think of other than a solar trickle charger and I dont know how well they would actually work.
This unit is under 50 lbs...less than a deep cycle marine battery (maybe??)

http://www.harborfreight.com/engine...s-900-max-watts-portable-generator-66619.html

 

[Silvertip]

Re: how to charge

Solar panels are thought of as being an unlimited source of electricity and free to boot. Fact is, unless you have a solar panel nearly the size of pontoon boat it does not serve as a "charger". At best it is a maintainer. Unless you have a very long period of time between uses, using a small solar panel is not a viable. Option. The solution, have an electrical contractor bury a cable to the beach from the cabin. Carry a battery charger down to charge the battery.

 

[Borchik]

Re: how to charge

I installed one on a customers dock for him about 4 years ago, he uses the boat on weekends so it sits all week and takes about that long to charge the battery up but it does work. Its a relatively small panel, forget the exact output but I think its about a 12 inch square panel.

 

[j_martin]

Re: how to charge

A modern battery charger (smart charger) will work well even on the end of a very long power drop, like several hundred feet of 14/2 UF direct burial wire. Even if the voltage drops to 100 or so, the circuitry will compensate. 1100 feet of said wire at 2 amps draw will provide 108 volts at the far end.

Scratch it in to the ground a few inches if you can, or it can run on the surface if needed. Just be sure to supply it with a ground fault interupter for safety.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: how to charge

Just a thought but about 18 years ago I went on a fishing trip to a remote area in Canada, there was a cabin on the lake which sat atop a rocky cliff, the dock at the base of that cliff. There were steps cut into the rock and formed from concrete but nothing you would want to lug gear up and down. The drop was about 50 or so feet. Once down at the dock, there was a short landing and several finger docks. The guy that owned the place made up a cable system to get gear down to the docks. Sort of like a ski lift of sorts. He had a pole down below, and a cable with a couple of hooks on it and a basket. You would put your gear in the basket, go topside and power it up the hill with a hand crank. It worked great, we were able to haul our coolers, tackle boxes, and other gear with little effort.
The rig was sort of a heavy duty version of the old rope and pulley clotheslines people used to use out of upstairs windows but with a steel cable and hand crank. There was a hook at each end so you didn't have to return the cable in either direction.

Maybe a cable and pulley system might work?

 

[Sixmark]

Re: how to charge

Measure the distance from the nearest electrical outlet to the dock, then you have 2 options, buy conduit and wire in a remore outlet, or run a long enough extension cord.

Keep in mind that if you run an extension cord that is fairly long then it must be a quality one, not a Walmart special. The reason being that the longer the cord means the more resistance under load which means heat.....not good.

So you would want a quality cord with thicker gauge wire inside, I also would recommend only plugging it into a GFI outlet.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: how to charge

Once again there is a misunderstanding about the differences between keeping a starting battery charged and actually charging a trolling motor battery. Boat engine starting batteries do not tend to get deeply discharged so a solar panel may indeed work as there is little for it to do other than take care of any self-discharging. Trolling motor batteries however draw gobs of power so running a 35# thrust motor for ONE HOUR will likely pull about 30 amps from the battery. This represents 378 watts of power (12.6 x 30). A one square foot panel outputs 5 - 7 watts in full sunlight. It would therefore take 75 hours of full sun to make up that one hours worth of power. Since we do have darkness for 1/2 the day you can do the math from there. I suggest again -- solar panels are not a solution for charging a deep cycle battery. The long period between deep discharge and fully charged is not good for the battery either.

 

[JoLin]

Re: how to charge

A heavy-duty extension cord capable of carrying the current over a long distance, will weigh as much as, if not more than, the battery. My 30-amp, 50' shore power cable weighs quite a bit.

I don't see how the power extension (house to dock) would do any good unless it was a permanent, electrician-installed run.

Any other solution means carrying a significant amount of weight between the house and dock.

My .02

 

[Sixmark]

Re: how to charge

A heavy-duty extension cord capable of carrying the current over a long distance, will weigh as much as, if not more than, the battery. My 30-amp, 50' shore power cable weighs quite a bit.

I don't see how the power extension (house to dock) would do any good unless it was a permanent, electrician-installed run.

Any other solution means carrying a significant amount of weight between the house and dock.

My .02

OK, I didn't think I would have to account for people not using common sense and explain my post further in depth but I guess it is a requirement.

As I very clearly stated it could be done one of 2 different ways, and obviously I wasn't stating that a person carry an extension cord back and forth every time they use the boat.

SO.............

Assuming that a person would not retrieve the extension cord after every use, and that they would also have enough common sense to leave it haphazardly lying around so as to interfere with other common activities in the immediate area then it would be fine. We have done this at our boathouse, I just make sure and use common sense and bring it in at the end of the season.

 

[CheapboatKev]

Re: how to charge

Maybe scrap the electric motor altogether and find a nice little 2.5 hp tiller?

 

[JoLin]

Re: how to charge

OK, I didn't think I would have to account for people not using common sense and explain my post further in depth but I guess it is a requirement.

You can hold the sarcasm. My reply to the OP's thread had nothing to do with yours. I really don't care if you recommend an extension cord. Your advice and your opinion are your business.

My advice and my opinion are that the best way to solve the need for power between the house and dock, is to run a permanent installation between the 2.

My .02

 

[Sixmark]

Re: how to charge

You can hold the sarcasm. My reply to the OP's thread had nothing to do with yours. I really don't care if you recommend an extension cord. Your advice and your opinion are your business.

My advice and my opinion are that the best way to solve the need for power between the house and dock, is to run a permanent installation between the 2.

My .02

Funny How I also mentioned the same thing, my guess is that you missed the part about the conduit and wiring in a remote outlet but being that your solutions are self proclaimed as the best way, then I guess we all should bow down..........arrogance solves nothing.

 

[NYBo]

Re: how to charge

Once again there is a misunderstanding about the differences between keeping a starting battery charged and actually charging a trolling motor battery. Boat engine starting batteries do not tend to get deeply discharged so a solar panel may indeed work as there is little for it to do other than take care of any self-discharging. Trolling motor batteries however draw gobs of power so running a 35# thrust motor for ONE HOUR will likely pull about 30 amps from the battery. This represents 378 watts of power (12.6 x 30). A one square foot panel outputs 5 - 7 watts in full sunlight. It would therefore take 75 hours of full sun to make up that one hours worth of power. Since we do have darkness for 1/2 the day you can do the math from there. I suggest again -- solar panels are not a solution for charging a deep cycle battery. The long period between deep discharge and fully charged is not good for the battery either.

I had something like this in mind:

 

[JoLin]

Re: how to charge

Funny How I also mentioned the same thing, my guess is that you missed the part about the conduit and wiring in a remote outlet but being that your solutions are self proclaimed as the best way, then I guess we all should bow down..........arrogance solves nothing.

The only condescending, arrogant tone I've seen in this thread is yours. Twice. You do understand what the word 'opinion' means, don't you?

Done with this thread.