On board chargers

[Guest]

I am interested in these on board chargers, but I don't know much about them. Do I understand correctly that they can charge all your batteries in the boat? How does it work? Does it take electricity from the outboard motor and tranfer it to more power to all batteries? Tough to install?

[Guest]

Onboard chargers allow you to charge batteries without removing them from the boat. They function as a standard battery charger but they are waterproof and can have multiple outputs. The majority of them run on 110v, but there are some that work off the boats alternator, but you have to run your boat for a long time. They are simple to install and save a lot of time and headaches.

Rob

[delmuts]

i agree . if you have more than one battery in your boat it makes charging them much easier. you get home from a day of fishing and plug the unit in. in the morning or a few hours later( depending on how much power they produce) and you have fully charged bateries. no fighting with a charger and getting it clipped on, plus most of the units are handy for in the winter for keeping the charge up and not having batteries freeze. del

[Guest]

Yeah, Scoot. I want to find a charger that will run from the motor's alternator system and tie into my deep cycle batteries in front, so they will charge when I drive from spot to spot.
Is there any products out there that will charge while the motor is running? If so, what brand names and models?

Thanks to you all.

[Dan97]

Scoot & CD...

Yes the are products available the allow you to charge your batteries from your motor. BUT the output of your alternator is quite low and probably wouldn't be able to keep up with the trolling motor's power consumption. I think Bass Pro or Cabelas may have had a gizmo like this. I'll check my "wish books" and get back to you.

Dan

Check this out (if it works)
http://www.basspro-shops.com/servlet/catalog.TextId?hvarTextId=27369&hvarDept=200&hvarEvent=&hvarClassCode=3&hvarSubCode=5&hvarTarget=browse

[This message has been edited by Dan97 (edited 04-23-2001).]

[Scoot]

Rob and Del,
Why is it that you can't charge the battery or batteries with the alternator rather than charging them. If you have an alternator in the boat why not run a line to each seperate battery? I've wondered why people don't do this- I assume there's a good answer, I just don't know it.
Scoot

[delmuts]

unless you run the river or big lakes were you make long runs, the alternator of an outboard doesn't put out enough of a charge to do much good to help out the trolling motor batteries. they do make wiring that you can try ,but don't expect much.it wouldn't be near enough to bring them to a full charge.del

[Guest]

Most of the chargers that run off the motor make sure the starting battery is at full charge before diverting any power to the other batteries. Delmuts is right unless you are making long runs ( two hours +) they dont do alot of good.

Rob