On Boat Chargers

  • Thread starter LEIGH MIDDLETON
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LEIGH MIDDLETON

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Deville, LA
Well I see a 3 bank Minn Kota for 125.00 brand new. With that, I would like some good advice on buying an on board charger. It sure would be worth it. Also, what is the 3rd or 4th battery for? I have 2 batteries and 1 is for trolling and the other is for crankin. Do I need a 3rd or 4th? I plan on putting a radio in it and eventually upgrade the console electronics but thats about it. Thanks and have a great weekend!
 
Some of us have 4 batteries 3 for trollers (36Volt) and one for the starting battery. On my new boat I also have four, two for the troller and two for cranking (one as backup with a switch). Think about upgrading your troller to a 24V system and you could use three. Although you engine while running is supposed to charge your starting battery.
 
OK but I dont know why someone would need 3 batteries for a trolling motor? I dont really understand how it works with more than 1 battery. Thanks,:wacko:
 
Leigh - Some trollers run on 24C and some on 36Volt. Anything over 100lbs thrust normally use 36 V and others 24 V just depending on the size

Bill
 
Sounds like you need a little explanation of battery technology. You can wire batteries together for two purposes, these are called series and parallel. Wired Parallel means connecting the positive terminals together and connecting the negative terminals together. With this wiring your voltage stays the same but the amps double. So two 12 volt batteries wired parallel still give off 12 volts but capacity (amps) increase. The other wiring method called Series involves wiring the positive terminal of battery 1 to the negative of battery 2, then wiring the positive of battery 2 to the negative of battery 3. Series multiplies the voltage available. Two 12 volt batteries wired in series give off 24 volts, three batteries in series give off 36 volts. So a 12 volt motor needs one 12 volt battery, a 24 volt motor needs 2 batteries wired in series, and a 36 volt motor needs three batteries wired in series. In addition to these, you need one other seperate battery to crank your motor and run your other 12 volt devices from. So you need a charger that has the same number of banks as the number of batteries you have. Each bank is wired to a specific battery and charges that battery. A multibank charger is actually seperate chargers all contained in a single device. Hope that helps.
 
So you will tie the two batteries in series (2 -12volt batteries in series = 24volts) and power your upgraded 24volt trolling motor. Also, in a pinch, if the cranking battery somehow goes south, you can unhook one TM battery and use it to crank the big motor to get you back to the dock.



Disclaimer..... Some folks say you shouldn't use the deep cycle battery to crank, but in a pinch you gotta do what you gotta do. I wouldn't make it a habit.
 

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