Installing onboard charger help.

[h8go4s]

I have a ProMariner ProSport12 2-bank charger going into an Alumacraft Classic 165 tiller. The charger leads aren't long enough to reach both the front and rear batteries. They sell a 15-foot cable extender for $30.00, "gold-plated terminals, in line fuses & hardware included". Seems like overkill to me as the charger already has fuses, on the positive lead to the cranking battery and both positive and negative to the trolling motor battery. Any reason I shouldn't just make up my own cable out of 12-gage stranded and skip the extra fuses?

I'm also wondering if anyone with the same boat can suggest the best place to mount the charger. It claims to be waterproof, so I'm thinking in the rear right corner where it would be out of the way. If I put it inside the rear storage compartment, I lose storage space. I won't be getting delivery for a few weeks yet, so I can't go out to the garage and mess with it yet, but I want to be ready when the time comes.

Thanks.

Ron.

[Brad B]

I am kind of in the same boat as you. I just bought a 2011 Alumacraft Fisherman 160CS and have the same issue. I had a 2 bank charger from my other boat that I sold so I wanted to put it in the new boat. I bought the cables you where talking about and was going to pull up the boards that run along the side of the boat and put them under them but to do this I would have had to pull some of the foam out. I talked to one of the guys at the boat shop and they said the motor would keep the rear battery charged in you ran the motor every so often. My solution for me problem was to add a second battery in the rear and use it for strictly accessories (ie : fish finders, vhf radio, regular radio, lights). I am going to put my 2 bank charger on those 2 batteries and for the battery up front I bought a 1 bank charger. I will have 3 batteries on board. the one if the front will be a dedicated trolling motor battery. One of the 2 in back will be a dedicated starting battery for the motor. as for the placement of the chargers the one in the front will be placed in front of the battery (to do this I need to move the battry tray back a little). the 2 bank charger in the rear will be put either down by the batteries or above them with the wires running into the same whole where the other wires and hose goes through then to the batteries.

[h8go4s]

I guess I don't see the need for a separate battery for accessories unless you're running a transom trolling motor off it. Modern outboards don't take much juice to start and the electronics run on pretty low current draws also.

Yesterday I discovered that the C-store chargers are ProMariners with a different paint job. C-store has the cable extender for $20.00, which sounds more reasonable. I might go that route.

Ron.

[bASS_BLASTER]

Hey guys. I have a 3 bank charger. I like the slow charging so I have a 13A 3 Bank Charger. The 3A goes to the outboard/cranking battery and the 5A's are connected to the trolling and accessory batteries. The wires that came with it were not long enough, so I used 12 gauge premium wires bought from a Marine shop. Be sure to use waterproof connectors. I've done it for my last boat and new boat. So far, no fires yet.

It should be very simple. Positive to positive and negative to negative.

[h8go4s]

Yeah, I looked at marine 12-gage wire. It was $2.19 a foot, so the 15-foot cable extender at $20.00 is a good deal.

Ron.

[bASS_BLASTER]

Yes, you don't want to go cheap, it can be hazardous.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

I'm driving down there tomorrow to get mine. Installing it in an Alumacraft Classic 165 CS