Electrical question

I have a 15 hp. Johnson with electric start that I was fishing with for the last 2 weeks of the lake trout season. It has a 4 amp. alternator which keeps my battery charged to run my sonar, GPS, which are on all day, running lights at night, and many starts as I kill the outboard with every strike. The battery started at 12.53 volts and ended the 2 weeks at 13.35 volts. I used to have to charge the battery after about 5 days before adding the electric start and charging system. At 4 amps, for which you need about 2/3 throttle, it won't compensate for a trolling motor drain, but it sure is nice not to have to charge a battery in the bush.

My Legend came with both an on board plug in style charger and a dc charger the runs off the motor to charge the trolling batteries.
The dc charger helps when running and gunning but doesn't come anywhere near charging a run down battery, (not enough output amps would be my guess). If I had to replace it, I'd just spend the bucks on bigger batteries with more reserve cap. and a better on board charger for shore power top ups

buy a battery isolator (its just a relay but it is designed for high current) hook it up to your ignition wire so when your running your motor it charges your other 2 batteries. it is better to hook it up this way then a switch because when you have you're key in the off position your battery that is used to start your motor does not get drained

Cheers

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Originally Posted by cambam

How can I set up by boat so while running, the engine can also charge my 2 front batteries when needed. Tired of using the trickle charger at home. There must be something on the market that allows you to switch back-and-forth??

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Don't. Deep cycle batteries are designed to be deep cycled. Charging them off your engine will result in reduced battery life.

Great question Cambam. You never want to hard wire from your starting battery to your deep cycles this is a big nono. Your best bet is to purchase the DC charging unit available by Minn Kota. Here is a link: http://www.minnkotamotors.com/Batter...ator-Chargers/

Keep in mind that this will just give you a top up when your main outboard is running. It sends a trickle charge not a full 6amp+ charge so it won’t harm your batteries. You can also purchase a 3 bank charger to tie everything together and when plugged in it will maintain and smart charge your batteries. I use group 27 series and it gives me a full day and a half of use on a 80lb. unit. I find going with group 31 series is a little too big and heavy. Hope this helps

Cheers Henry

The electric output of my 15 HP Suzuki (manual) is very marginal . Soooo , I'm utelizing five 2.5 W solar-panels to maintain the deep-cycle-battery . The 12.5 W (~1Amp.) total output (under ideal circumstances) is sufficient to run my GPS , Sonar and 2-way-radio . --- OK , I'll have to admit that the radio is very seldom used but the GPS and Sonar are on whenever I'm on the water . --- Originally I had mounted only 3 panels and discovered that it wasn't enough . Fortunately , Can. Tire had another sale and I picked up 2 more . At $9.95 ea. the price was tolerable . --- A controller is not needed because of the relatively low output . --- The panels are small enough to be installed where they don't get in the way . --- My Sonar (Garmin) constantly shows the available battery-voltage . There is no probability of over-charging the battery . --- If there would be I'd just cover the panels with a rag .