On Board Battery Charger For Pond Prowler

[RSM789]

I am adding a on board charger for the trolling motor battery on my Pond Prowler and have a question regarding location. The trolling motor is bow mounted and the battery is in the stern, connected using the factory installed wiring run through the hull. There is a quick connect adapter spliced into the trolling motor wiring that plugs into the factory installed outlet in the bow.

My question is if I spliced another quick connect adapter to the on board charger wiring, would it be okay to connect the charger to the battery via the in hull wiring? It works best for me to have the charger in the bow and using the in hull wiring removes the need to run wiring to the stern. When done fishing, I would just disconnect the trolling motor from the outlet & plug the charger in its place.

The on board charger is the Bass Pro XPS charger. The in hull wiring has a pair of fuses built in to the positive wire at the battery location.

[Fishes in trees]

I used to have a pond boat and I ran 3 batteries, just so that I never ran out of power while I was fishing.

I bought a 3 bank charger so it was easier to charge all the batteries at once.  I found it easier to mount the charger on a stand in my garage and hook it up when I got home rather than mount it in the boat.

 

When charging, I always disconnected the batteries from everything and hooked up the charger using wing nuts.  Easy, relatively quick, direct connection that wouldn't come loose, like clips might.

[RSM789]

I have a pretty high capacity battery, an older A/C Delco deep cycle, and it powers my 46lb thrust Motorguide for 8 hrs. without losing much, if any, power.  My boat is kept on the water, so an onboard charger was a logical modification, eliminating the need to haul a charger down to the dock.

 

The connection to the battery is with the ring terminals & wingnuts, so that will stay secure.  The quick connect that I am referencing would be one of these http://www.basspro.com/Pond-Prowler-Trolling-Motor-Plug/product/12052509153040/ , I may be wrong in calling it a quick connect. If I use it, then only the charger will be connected to the battery when charging. 

 

I guess my question is it this plug is solid enough to be used drawing current from the battery to power a trolling motor, shouldn't it be solid enough to send current the other direction to charge the battery?  I have never had that plug come loose while using the trolling motor, even when I accidently kick the plug or pull on the trolling motor cable. 

 

I called the manufacturer, but I don't think the guy in Tech support understood what I was asking.  He kept repeating that the charger connection to the battery needs to be the direct connection with wirenuts and I couldn't explain to him in terms he understood what I was contemplating doing.  I believe he kept thinking that I wanted to use some kind of quick connect at the battery, not inline. 

[Crappiebasser]

You should be fine connecting through the existing wiring to charge the battery. My crappie boat has a trolling battery in the front and With the charger in the back. I have about a 15' lead on one bank of my charger.

[slonezp]

Make sure you fuse the charging leads. Many on bank chargers fuse both + and -

[RSM789]

Make sure you fuse the charging leads. Many on bank chargers fuse both + and -

The factory in-hull wiring has dual fuses built into the positive wire, about 10" from where it connects to the battery.  The charger has a fuse on the positive lead about 4" from the ring connector.  I can splice in the quick connect so that it includes the charger fuse, but would that be overkill?

[slonezp]

You don't need a second fuse, it's just one more point of failure. I would use the fuse size recommended by the charger manufacturer. 

[WIGuide]

It should be fine to do what you're thinking. In the 80's, before on-board chargers were out there, Ranger had a system like this. They had an extra tm plug that you could wire to your charger so you could just plug it in up front like you would be able to with yours.