Motor Battery - Charging

[fish'n'chippy]

Save yourself all the hassles by installing a 12vDC - 24vDC charger between your start and leccy batteries
24v pair will charge off the alternator on the outboard, and/or from a 12v charger connected to the start battery when you get home
No VSR (charger does that), no need to disconnect anything or charging batteries individually

[johncar]

thanks johncar.

do i need to disconnect the batteries before i put on the trickle charger?

Splash

You probably don't have to disconnect anything to charge your batteries assuming that your start battery is already stand alone and your electric motor is 24 Volt? and in that case you have the two other batteries connected in series as you said. As Fed said you can just connect your charger to each of the three batteries without disconnecting anything in that case as there are no paralleled batteries. Sorry I was initially thinking the electric motor was 12 volt..I have never had one.
If you are happy to do this and rotate the charger between the 3 batteries then no need to worry about installing a VSR or ACR but I would still consider at least putting some type of isolator switch on each of your start battery and electric motor pair. Just avoids any possible power leakage between use and adds a bit of safety to the electrical system.

[WalrusLike]

You could also install Anderson Plug connectors to your batteries or your isolator switchs so the charger just plugs in to that... heaps easier than mucking around with terminals.


(Using Tapatalk on iPhone so can't easily 'thank' or 'like'.)

[Splash]

thanks guys

really appreciate your input.

splash

[Spaniard_King]

I don't like the idea of 1 x house and 1 x start if you have an issue with the start battery i.e something drawing current at anchor you risk flatening both batteries. This is more prevelant if you do over night trips

I have mine setup so what ever the switch is on, is the batery in use and the other is left isolated except when the engine is runing and it is being charged by the VSR... as fool proof as you can get IMO

I never have to charge any batteries unless I leave the cabin light on when the boats in the shed

[dnej]

I set up two sockets on the dash,round ones,and ran individual wires to the batteries.

My trickle charger is set up to plug into those sockets,one at a time as required.

They are also great for putting a meter on to test the batteries.
An improvement on this system, would be to have a small isolation switch on the two sets of direct wires.
Cheap as chips, and works great.
David

[myusernam]

hi splash,
havnt read through the rest of this thread but if I were you I would simply have an isolation sw on your crank battery if you want and just an anderson plug on your lecky. I would then have small 12v smart charger for your crank battery (jaycar 3.8a 5stage $60)that you leave on, and a 24v charger for your trolling bank. (jaycar 7A 24v selectable.) If you already have a charger and it's only 12 volt then charge them seperatley. Job done.