Solar Battery Chargers

[Can'tFishEnuf]

Can you actually charge a battery with these things or do they just trickle charge? I was thinking of camping in some remote areas and am wondering if I could charge my trolling moter deep cycle with solar. Any other ideas for charging a battery in the wilderness, assuming no generator? Would it work to switch the motor from the cranking battery over to the deep cycle and run it long enough to charge it? Any ideas how long that would take?

[JeffB]

solar won't keep up for your needs. To be honest your best bet would be a small generator even though you want to stay away from it. A small honda or yamaha generator is very portable and you will find many uses for it. Sorry, but it was the best answer I could give.

[delcecchi]

There is a device that you can buy that will charge the trolling motor batteries from the outboard, once the cranking battery is full.

One such device is listed on cabela web site as

Voltage Sensitive Trolling Bank Voltage Sensitive Charging Module - 12-Volt

[Tom7227]

Check the specs on the outboard if you're going to use one. I have a 30 year old Mariner 9.9 and I bought a small adapter and it did the job. Not great but better than any solar unit you could get. You would need a solar unit that was about 15" x 20" and it still wouldn't keep up very well.

[Can'tFishEnuf]

Thanks for the replies. That module device looks pretty interesting.

[PerchJerker]

Most of the advice given already has been spot-on.

Without question, the best way to recharge your batteries will be with a portable generator. That is the only way you are going to generate enough power to fullly recharge them.

As mentioned, the solar chargers just don't put out enough juice to quickly recharge batteries. And we talk to lots of guys who plan to use the solar chargers when they're back at camp .... but the problem is the solar chargers will not work during the night.

The on-board "Charge On The Run" or DC chargers are neat items, but also very limited. You need an alternator on your outboard that puts out a lot of amps, you need to run your outboard wide open to create the max number of amps, and you need to run for a long time (hours) to recharge batteries. They will help maintain your batteries but not much more, and the less you run and the slower you go with your outboard the less benefit you'll get from these chargers.

If the portable generator is out of the question for you, an option may be to bring an extra set of batteries with 1 or 2 solar chargers for each battery, and plan to recharge them back at camp each day while you're out fishing with your other set of batteries. This is easier to do with a 12 volt (1 battery) motor. Then you just have to hope the sun is shining.

Good luck.