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I thought I would post this up for those of you who may be wondering
1) what to do with your boat batteries (storage, charging, etc.)
2) what type of charger you use.
This is what I do with mine. I'd love to hear what other boaters do with their batteries and why.
As far as my batteries, I just leave them in the boat. I installed an on-board charger (two banks, 10amp output per bank (NOCO Genius Gen2 20 amp), so all I have to do is just plug my boat in (I cut the male plug off the NOCO charger and then installed a 110V recessed, male plug near my trolling motor plug on the front of the boat) and let the charger do it's thing. By the way, I got the It automatically shuts off and then keeps the batteries topped off if you leave it plugged in, which I do. I do check the water in the batteries about once every 3 months and rarely do I have to add anything. I debated about buying this on-board charger since I had a regular battery charger but....there is so much less hassle (don't have to open up compartments, hook it up, unhook it, put it away, etc.) All I have to do is run an extension cord to my boat and that's it.
Now I gotta plug the NOCO Genius Gen2 charger. I selected this charger for a couple of reasons. I have friends that fish the walleye circuit back in the Midwest and several of them recommended this brand to me. It is waterproof (no just water resistant). It is a LOT more inexpensive than a MinnKota or other name-brand chargers out there. Finally, its totally automatic and shuts off each bank independently when that battery reaches a full charge and then automatically cycles on/off to maintain that battery over a long storage period without fear of depleting the charge or overcharging. I paid less than $100 on a killer sale about 4 years ago, but you can still get the 2 bank charger (10 amps per bank) for around $150 now, and maybe cheaper on the right day or right webpage. I believe they sell up to 4 bank chargers. I hid the charger in a storage area on my boat and hooked the leads to each battery. Here is a picture of the recessed male plug I soldiered to the input line on the charger.
[inline plug.jpg]
[inline "battery charger.jpg"]
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That is a great idea Scott, once I find out if my MinnKota on board charger works or not, that recessed plug in the front sounds like the way to go. I too leave my batteries in my boat but this year I installed a Pergo(sp?) switch that kills all power to my boat when it is in the off position. By the way, where did you buy your 110V recessed male plug?
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Oh, I have that Pergo switch also. It guarantees the power is off, AND it also allows you to use your trolling motor battery(s) and run them down, but still leave your starting battery fully charged so you can crank you big motor when it is time to head back to the dock. The on-board charger is mainly to SIMPLIFY charging and then assure your batteries are "topped-off" if you don't use your boat.
To test your on-board charger just hook up a voltage tester to the positive and negative leads, plug it in. If the voltage is about 13.5-14.5 v, then it shows the charger is charging. If not, then its not working. Takes only a few seconds to test.
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Thanks Scott, I did not have anything in writing on how to test my on board charger but when I noticed it did not seem to be working right I tested it the way you indicated and found that, with the three bank charger I have on my boat, they all have different readings[crazy]. The lights that indicate the state of charge of the batteries do not seem to work correctly as well. They will stay on yellow when fully charged or go off, not sure what they are suppose to do but I'm sure they should all be the same color, when fully charged.
Do you think the best way to test the charger is to disconnect all charger leads from each battery before you check them individually?
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For years, I have left the batteries on my boat without any problems. I have an on-board charger for the trolling batteries only. Once a year, I check the water level and I make sure all of the batteries are fully charged when the boat is put away for the winter. While it is in storage (my boats have always been stored outside) I plug in the on-board charger and also charge the starting battery about every 3 months.
I am going to miss my Perko Switch (that I had on my previous two boats).
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I thought you took your last boat to the dump when you were getting rid of it. If so, why did you not take your Perko Switch off?
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I took it plus almost everything else off the boat and sold them. A guy came by and bought several things, including the Perko switch that wasn't even up for sale yet. I thought about telling him that it wasn't for sale, but because he was buying several items, and I was so glad to get rid of them, I decided to let it go with everything else. Haven't really looked to see how difficult it would be to hook up a switch to my new boat.
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ChargerGuy.com sells stuff on Ebay. Has lots of info on chargers. One thing it says is to make sure all the leads are hooked up before you plug in the charger
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Thanks for the info Gary, that could be one of the problems with my charger then. When I got the boat there were two older and one new batteries installed. One of the older batteries was totally dead the other made it through that first year with a lot of TLC. When I removed the dead battery, I did not hook up the leads to anything, so maybe that ruined the charger[:/]. I'll check out that web site and see If I can find out some more info.
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I agree with Scott on this one, he turned me on to this on-board NOCO Charger and I have it almost as long as he has had his with no problems at all. Great unit.
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Thanks for the recommendation Dan but now you have me wondering, if you have an on board charger, why do you remove your batteries from your boat?[:/]
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Curt , I left the batteries in one of my other boats over the winter outside and they cracked on the edges and I had a big mess . So it's just a habit I got into for the winter.
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I guess it depend on the boat and where you have it stored. I use to take them out in my 14ft alum boat but once I got a bigger boat and started storing it next to my house, I just left them in. Until this year, I would disconnect the battery leads but now I have a Proko switch and that kills all power to my batteries. I have an awning and a boat cover over by boat but other than that is is outside.
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I take my trolling motor batteries out of my boat and put them in the man cave. I had a battery make a mess over the winter once when I left them in and I don't want that again. My baby is at Lee's wrapped up and stored for the winter. He takes the starter battery out before he wraps it and keeps it maintained until March/April for me.
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Curt, Cabelas has a recessed plug bracket that does not require you to cut the factory charger male plug off. It "clamshells" the plug in very snug and then you just mount the bracket with 3 small screws.
I think it is only 14 bucks or so.
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Sweet, that should make this job a lot easier. With the warm weather this month, I'm thinking about getting this project done in the next week or two because I'm guessing we are in for some early season soft water fishing this year, likely by the end of next month. Thanks for the info Shane.
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You are welcome.
Us boaters better get in as much time on the water early because later in the year is going to be the lowest water levels we have seen in a long time.
I will say this, a lot of vegetation has grown around our lakes and when the water does come up we should have some real good spawns.
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The news the other night claimed we have 90% of our normal snow pack in the mountains but I'm not sure how long that will last if don't keep getting the snow in the mountains. Totally agree about the vegetation having grown up around our lakes. If we have one more Summer like the last two, we will have a ton of good habitat for fish to spawn.
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