on board battery charger

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andrew knurowski

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I just bought my first fishing boat and it is a 1998 Nitro Tracker 205SF with a 200 horse and a trolling motor. I have a cranking battery on one side in the back of the boat and 2 interstate batteries on the other side. the trolling motor is hooked up to the Interstate battery and the back-up interstate battery I believe. I figured out that everything electronic was hooked up to the cranking battery including my stereo. I recently switched everything over to the Interstate batteries and a separate line for my stereo. the only thing I have hooked up to the cranking battery is the motor, which from what I read was correct. Now I bought an on board battery charger from minnkota that has 2 banks. I need to know how to and where to install the charger. It says that it shouldn't be near a gas tank, but that is where my batteries are. That got me wondering if the batteries should be by the gas tank, but a marina installed them there so I would assume that the on board battery charger installed back there would be fine as long as I get it off to the side and not over or below the batteries. Any suggestions?
 
It sounds as if everything was hooked up correctly. For the situation you describe and assuming your trolling motor is 12/24 or 24 volt, your two bank charger will hook up to the two Interstate trolling batteries. The rest of the boats accesories (livewell and bilge pumps, stereos, etc...) as well as the outboard engine will connect to the cranking battery. This battery will recharge with the outboards alternator. As far as location is concerned, most all bass boats have gas tanks, batteries, and on-board chargers mounted in close proximity to each other. The key to safety in the compartment is basically keeping the area clean (clean up oil spills) and keep all battery connections good and tight to avoid sparking.

If however, your trolling motor is only 12 volt, that will be a slightly different scenario. Check trolling motor voltage. I am sure others will chime in as well.
 
You are not wired correctly. Nothing should be wired into your Trolling Motor batteries except your Trolling Motor. Your cranking battery runs everything else i.e., graphs, stereo, etc. What TM do you have? Lb thrust and how are the 2 TM batteries wired? Regardless, you should have bought a 3 bank charger (one for each battery) you are either going to have to wire the charger to the 2 trolling batteries leaving your starting battery uncharged (except when you run the big motor) or you wire 1 bank to the starting battery and 1 bank to one of the TM batteries. This will charge both of your TM batteries but it will take a long time.
 
Ok, I read that you shouldn't charge your cranking battery because you can ruin it over time by hooking it up to a charger. Like I said I have no clue as this is my first boat. There are so many conflicting things on the internet. So i will hook up my electronics and my stereo back on the cranking battery and leave my trolling motor hooked up to the other deep cycle batteries. Is there a reason that I shouldn't keep them on the 2 deep cycle interstate batteries? Is it ok to do or will that cash out my battery a lot sooner? I also have a tracker 60 trolling motor which I think it said 57lb thrust on it for those that asked. Thanks for the help guys!

 
TOXIC



I have the same set-up as Andy, a cranking battery and two deep cycles hooked up in series for the 24 volt trolling motor. I was told by the dealer I could hook up my 12 volt accessories (downriggers) to one and only one of deep cycle batteries and that would give me 12 volts to safely power the 12 volt accessories. Because I plan on trolling mostly with a kicker, the main engines alternator won't be charging the cranking battery so between the FF and downriggers, I'm afraid the cranking battery won't be charged enough to fire up the boat when done trolling. I've also wired my FF to the same battery that my downriggers are wired to...one and only one of the TM deep cycles wired in series. This guy named Silvertip on IBoats forum says it's ok to do this but you should use the battery with the negative lead for the TM coming off of it. Would you take a look at his diagram and let me know what you think. Maybe I'd be better off adding a second battery in parallel to my cranking battery instead?



http://forums.iboats.com/electrical-electronics-audio-trolling-motors/24-volt-wiring-clarification-301172.html
 
Andy et,al, every bassboat I've ever seen has a charger hooked up to the cranking battery. Some will scrimp and only put 1 bank to the TM batteries (2) and it will charge them albeit slowly. There is a system that charges your TM batteries off of your big motor and there is a system that charges all of your batteries from your tow vehicle alternator. There is also a system where if you run down your cranking battery, you can manually switch over to your TM batteries to start the big motor. You will not ruin your cranking battery by hooking up a charger to it. The reason none of the graphs and extra's are on your TM batteries is that the TM creates interference and distorts finders, stereo's, etc. Sure, you can wire anything you want to them because a battery doesn't know any difference.



Thun, you are fine and like I said, it can be done. Difference is you are not running your TM which would interfere with your graphs and you are using a kicker which won't allow your cranking battery to regain any charge. Yours is different from a bass boat set up where you are on the trolling motor AND looking at your graphs. Mini has 5 batteries in his bass boat because he has the weather radio, sonic hub, big graphs, etc., he also has a switch he can divert power from and 1 or different combinations of his batteries so that he can be sure his big motor will crank. As an example, Carlos has big Lowrance graphs, 2 of us on his boat, very windy so he was on the TM all the time and the bilge running on a very regular basis and we never even ran low on power with all of that wired to the cranking battery (He does have the switch where he can divert. the TM battery current to start the big motor)
 
Thank you Toxic, once again you've put my mind at ease! There's so much knowledge out here, I love this site. Someday I hope to be among the ranks of guys like you.
 

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