On Board charger is officially dead

[tacklejunkie]

I bought it with the boat so I'm not out any money but until I get a new one, I'm going back to old school with charging my trolling motor batteries with the portable charger.

Question I have is do you need to disconnect the trolling motor terminals from the batteries while charging?

[papadarv]

No need to disconnect, just make sure you connect the + and - to one battery at a time. 2 chargers one on each battery would be the same as your on board charger.

[Duffman]

11 hours ago, tacklejunkie said:

Question I have is do you need to disconnect the trolling motor terminals from the batteries while charging?

I'd unplug the trolling motor from the receptacle before charging if that is possible. I just do it out of habit, I don't know if it's necessary, but I figure wandering volts and computer boards are probably not a great match. 

[BobT]

7 hours ago, Duffman said:

I'd unplug the trolling motor from the receptacle before charging if that is possible. I just do it out of habit, I don't know if it's necessary, but I figure wandering volts and computer boards are probably not a great match. 

It isn't necessary but it is good practice to disconnect your trolling motor when your done fishing. Would really suck to have the motor turned on with the speed set to minimum so the prop isn't turning. That would be a good way to drain your battery(s) and shorten their life expectancy by quite a bit. 

[bobbymalone]

On 05/24/2016 at 3:22 PM, BobT said:

It isn't necessary but it is good practice to disconnect your trolling motor when your done fishing. Would really suck to have the motor turned on with the speed set to minimum so the prop isn't turning. That would be a good way to drain your battery(s) and shorten their life expectancy by quite a bit. 

Unrelated/related, I wish my MK PD V2 would not operate in the stowed position.  More than once an accidental step on the foot pedal while unloading/loading at the launch has been a close call for a face or a pair of nuts.

[delcecchi]

Ah, another advantage of Terrova that I had forgotten about.  Stowing it automatically shuts off power, no matter what happens with pedal or ipilot. 

[SkunkedAgain]

The PD V2 has its power "on" and is sucking power any time that it is plugged in. That's why you hear it chirp the moment that it is plugged in. You should disconnect it from power when you are done both to save batteries and nuts.

[RebelSS]

30 minutes ago, SkunkedAgain said:

The PD V2 has its power "on" and is sucking power any time that it is plugged in. That's why you hear it chirp the moment that it is plugged in. You should disconnect it from power when you are done both to save batteries and nuts.

I'll totally agree with this.

[BobT]

4 hours ago, RebelSS said:

I'll totally agree with this.

Ditto. It's also good for fire safety. This is why I wish they would include a master power switch for the boat that could kill everything so it could be disconnected without manually disconnecting the battery(s).

[DLD24]

X2, I learned the hard way a couple years ago I came home from dinner to a burnt smell....Trolling motor was all melted and my carpet had some flames...Thank god it was just an old cheap motor, but if I was gone for longer it could have been real bad