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On Board battery chargers


SuperDave

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I want to purchase an on board battery charger. It will be for my Terrova 80lb. thrust 24V trolling motor. There seem to be many out there, with either 2 or 3 banks and also different Amps from 8 to 20.

Could someone shed some light on this for me?

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

 

 

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watch the warranties on these, I have found they last 2 years or 10 years not much in between

lots of good information on this sight if you do a search

 

I found an older model 3 bank charger at Canadian tire last year on clearance that came with a five year warranty, everything else I could find had 1 or 2 years

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You need one bank for each trolling battery plus one for the starting battery to charge and maintain it too....plug it in and forget it. You can purchase cable extension kits for the one at the stern depending on which unit you decide on. 5A per bank (15A total) will charge your batteries overnight especially with the higher end models that self regulate.

Edited by G.mech
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I have the mk330. It's gotta be close to 8 years old as I bought it used. It charges my deep cycles and cranking battery in less that 5 hours after a heavy day on the water.

 

The cranking battery is usually charged within an hour but the deep cycles take a little longer because they don't get any charge from the main motor. All of the ones in the market today seem to be pretty smart and you don't have to play around with setting for wet or AGM batteries. You just have to make sure the charger you but is suitable for the battery you are using.

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I have never had the need to charge my starting battery. Unless close to the se price I would not spend the extra money on a third bank. Unless your charging system on your motor is crap

 

But then I would spend the extra money on fixing it. Imo

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I don't understand the need to have your cranking battery hooked to the onboard charger? Isn't that what your alternator does?

If you leave your boat parked for long periods or leave the batteries in during winter storage it's nice to know the cranking battery is being taken care of. It's the most important one on the boat in my mind. The added cost for the third bank isn't significant really but like you guys suggest, it's not a 'must have' I guess.

Edited by G.mech
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I have never had the need to charge my starting battery. Unless close to the se price I would not spend the extra money on a third bank. Unless your charging system on your motor is crap

 

But then I would spend the extra money on fixing it. Imo

I would have to disagree with you because nowadays we have sooooo many things running off that starting battery.........HOWEVER, that's not the only reason. I keep my batteries hooked up ALL winter long because I have a on-board charger that maintains those batteries all winter. I believe all the newer on-board chargers are smart chargers and you want them hooked up whenever you are not fishing.

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I have never needed to charge a starting battery on a boat with proper charging system

and I don't think theres a toy that uses power that I don't have on my boat (LOL) including downriggers, with my kicker at the lowest speed I can go,it keeps it fully charged

 

I don't have power hydraulic steering .....which can be a killer

 

and I charge once them in the middle of the winter , only a battery that is put away not fully charged or one that is on it's way out will freeze

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