stay 'n charge

[picksbigwagon]

I posted this in equipment, got no responses so I thought I would try here. I just picked up the stay 'n charge system last night (great deal at mntka GM) and was wondering if anyone here uses one, has any installation tips, and any other kind of general help would be great as well. I currently have a 2 bank on board charger, but I am swithcing to this system for those trips up north to never land

[harvey lee]

Picks,let me know how you like it and how well it works. I have been thinking about getting one for awhile now.

[bassNspear]

how much are they? are they better and what are the benifits towards them

[picksbigwagon]

I got two of them for 70 bucks a piece at Mntka GM. the normal price tag said 200 bucks... Basically it charges your boats batteries off of the tow vehicles alternator. Kind of like RV's recharge their batteries. They claim it takes 25 minutes to charge a completely dead 12v to 93% full. so if yoy have a 24v system that would take 45-50 minutes. Well if you hook up the boat and wires, idle the truck while you load stuff in the boat, get the esxtra juice boxes for the kids, etc. by the time you hit the lake, your batteries are full. Not to mention when you come home, your batteries are full or pretty close after getting off the lake. I am sure I will forget once or twice to disconnect the wires, but I hope I don't.

Benefits? Well, when I am staying at my buddies place outside of finlayson (no elec, no running water) and we are fishing Mille Lacs every day, it will be nice to have full charged batteries each and every day, instead of rationing my battery use for a week.

[Central Bassman]

That kinda SWEET!!!!

[marine_man]

I don't have much personal experience.

I do know that I helped iffwalleyes install one on his pickup and it worked pretty good until he got a short somewhere along the line and stopped using it. He was using it to recharge his fish house batteries in the 1/2 hour drive from the lake he fishes to his house.

From what I understand it worked well when it worked.

marine_man

[iffwalleyes]

Ya they are a slick little system. Very simple to install not a hard thing at all. I need to replace the wiring on my as it got banged up from all the gravel etc. I drive on and then it got water and salt and all that good road grim and it corroded up and now it isn't working. I just have not taken the time to replace it as this winter I don't have my house on wheels on the lake so no batteries to recharge. I never used it on the boat because I always used my on board charger but it sure would work well and that was the main reason for them in the first place. They are suppose to put out a better charge as it is a DC charge not AC charge. I know that my short drive often was enought to charge the batteries up to as good as they ever were on the AC charger.

[picksbigwagon]

iff, would I need to hide my wires up underneath the frame somehow, or figure out some kind of covering to go over the wires? what could I use: polyvinyl tubing, duct tape, shrink wrap, ??? to cover those wires...

[marine_man]

If it were me I'd try and hide them in corrugated split tubing or something similar to protect against wire chaffing...

marine_man

[iffwalleyes]

If you are pretty much a highway guy just run them along the frame rail. But a piece of corrigate tube would be a good idea too I guess. In ND I spend many many miles on gravel roads probably many more than most so you will probably be fine. I tucked the plug end up in a hole in the bumper.

[Valv]

Tom, I suggest to use any kind of housing for the wiring, I was using mine as a mean to have heavy duty amp power to the back of my truck to run a winch on trailer, I had cables running inside frame, 3 months ago it shorted somewhere along the frame and set my truck on fire at the battery and I mean fire and SMOKE since somebody called 911 while I was putting it out (I have 3 estinguishers in my truck)

My fault is also I removed the little breaker on + terminal, since it kept blowing. Anyway get some sort of housing to protect wires, especially when they cross frame edges and crossmembers, and be sure it's snug with no olay where it can scrape and expose wires.

[picksbigwagon]

a truck fire val? I am sure your wife for years has given you grief about carrying 3 fire extinguishers in your truck. You finally got to strut into the house and announce "thank god I had 3 fire extinguishers in my truck today!!!" :grin:

Hope you are okay and the truck is salvagable. I will get some sort of protective covering for it as well....

[Valv]

Actually she was in the truck with me, I was taking her out to lunch during workbreak. Truck didn't get damaged at all it was all smoke, since I had the common sense to get players and screwdriver and disconnect neg from battery.

It was funny watching is since the whole lenght of truck was smoking heavily since wire insulator was melting all along. :shocked: