Charging fishouse batteries ?

[broken line]

First year using new Ice Castle wheel house that has forced air furnace which requires battery power. Any thoughts or experience mounting an on-board battery charger to the house, the same style that you would use on a boat. Just wondering if this could be an effective way to keep the batteries charged while running the generator. Appreciate any input or opinions.

[Finn-Hunk]

as long as you are using a generator just use a 10 amp batteery charger to keep your battery charged up.

[MuskieJunkie]

I like the idea, usally what we do is keep a charger in the house and utilize it when the generator is running, your way would be automatic.

I can tell you we get about 3-4 hours on a battery charge while using the lights and forced air furnace.

[pegleg]

My dad put a bank charger on his fish house after he converted it to forced air. It worked great. It is probably 8 years old now and it works great. Just start the generator when the batteries showed they were getting low (he had 6 batteries so we didn't even need to run the generator every weekend).

[lancer]

This works great, I use the my onboard charger from my boat in this capacity. Just plug it in and your dominating

[mustangt69]

ive got a forced air furnace in mine also, i have 2 walmart deep cycle batteries and i can get approximately 24-36 hours of furnace, lights and occasional tv and radio use, this with the thermostat in the 60's

[End of the Line]

I used my Cabelas points up and got an onboard charger plus I also have a battery switch for 2 batteries just like a boat. I can get 20 hours off the 2 batteries using just about anything I want including lights, TV, outside lights, radio, bait bucket aereator, and I also run my LX-1 off the house batteries too. 2-3 hours on at home or a generator at the lakes will put me right back near the top again.

[spotter]

another idea is a converter, I just installed one on my wheel house and it works great. When the generator is running it charges the batteries and converts 120 volts ac to 12 volts dc, that way the 12 volt stuff draws from the converter not the battery, which alows the batteries to be charged faster and better. Another good thing is that if you use your fish house as a camper in the summer you dont need batteries, they can go back into the boat. Just leave it plugged in and all 12 volt stuff will work. Only downside is that it has a cooling fan that runs which makes some noise but not too bad. Found this unit on the web from a place called best rv and truck supply for about 130 bucks.

If you go with a onboard charger go with one with a larger amp output. I think my forced air furnace draws about 3.5 amps, so if you were to use a small output charger like two amps or so, really wouldn't be chraging when the furnace is on. 6 to ten amps would be best in imo, but not a expert.

[Take'Em]

Has anybody had problems with surging from the generator ruining chargers?

[jiffypop]

Plug the charger into a surge strip, that should guard against killing the charger. Has anyone considered a solar battery charger to mount on their roof? I would think it would be extremely economical, assuming no one would steal your solar panel, but that way it would charge all day long.

[hawkeye43]

you need to mount it in the middle of the roof. harder to get at.

[nytelyter]

you can read about solar chargers by looking up an old post i did about three months sgo. the thing is with solar you have to spend some big bucks to get the proper charging. and btw the best place for solar ion a fishhouse is on the south faceing side. low sun angles wiill reflect as much off of snow and ice as from above. ... paul

[coldmark]

When my battery gets low while camping, I hook up my camper to my truck for a half hour or so and the batteries come back to life. Help me understand how this works and how I can make it work with my fishouse. Thanks!

I have a '04 Silverado with the towing package. Is there something within my camper that makes this possible or is it just wired from my alternator to my camper's battery? Can I make something that plugs into the back of my truck and runs to my battery(s)? Or do I need to buy something like the Stay 'N Charge?

[backlash 1]

I reccomend the stay and charge if you don't want to get a generator. You have to install a seperate wireing harness from your truck battery to the rear of truck. I installed one in both my fish-house and boat also. I only use them as a backup, but they have saved my butt many times when I have been out and about with no electricity to recharge my batterys...

[coldmark]

I was talking to a guy at work this morning and he said to just hook up some old jumper cables from my truck battery to the fishouse battery. Sounds easy enough. I might try to hook something up to my truck battery that hangs out of the grill so I can just plug it in. I'll also try to use thick wire.