What on board charger so I need for 3 battery setup.

[FishHard247]

Hey guys. Going with a new jon boat build. Will have 3 batteries in the back. Would love to do an onboard charger to save hassle. Not up to date on those bank chargers. So would I need a 3 bank? Boat will have 2 minn kota 55's on the back and a minnkota 45 foot controlled on bow. Lake is 200 acres electric only btw hence all the trolling motors lol. Thanks!

[Wayne P.]

A "Bank" is a connection to a battery.  Three banks for three batteries.

[MDBowHunter]

I'm running the BPS 3 bank onboard it's pretty nice, I have an all electric boat as well. I run 2-55s with a 45 on the front as you do except I'm running 4-6 volt golf cart batteries for my 55s and 2-12s for my 45. If I was to fish today everything would be charged and ready in a day and a half. Do yourself a favor and split the batteries up for weight reasons, the closer to center the better. I built a compartment in front of the rear seat that holds my 6volt batteries and the charger, and my batteries for my bow mount are under the front deck.

[FishHard247]

11 hours ago, MDBowHunter said:

I'm running the BPS 3 bank onboard it's pretty nice, I have an all electric boat as well. I run 2-55s with a 45 on the front as you do except I'm running 4-6 volt golf cart batteries for my 55s and 2-12s for my 45. If I was to fish today everything would be charged and ready in a day and a half. Do yourself a favor and split the batteries up for weight reasons, the closer to center the better. I built a compartment in front of the rear seat that holds my 6volt batteries and the charger, and my batteries for my bow mount are under the front deck.

Awesome. I'd love to see your setup if you have any pics. Getaccurate@gmail.com 

[MDBowHunter]

The first pic is a year old and the seating is a little different, and before I bought a bowmount. The batteries for the front motor are under the front deck tucked away in the rear corners, they're 2-12 volt batteries wired in parallel, my fishfinder is also hooked to them batteries with no ill effects even after two years. The rears batteries are in the compartment in front of the rear seat, I extended the deck so I could place them there to keep the weight more center. Them two sets of batteries are 2 pairs of 6 volt golfcart batteries wired in series, by doing this I can run all day with no worries of a dead battery. The charger is between the two rear batteries and I have the rear sets wired to the trolling motor output wires of the charger, and the front set of batteries is wired to the starting battery output. Everything works great, I get home plug in and it's ready to roll in about a day and a half. 

 

[FishHard247]

4 hours ago, MDBowHunter said:

The first pic is a year old and the seating is a little different, and before I bought a bowmount. The batteries for the front motor are under the front deck tucked away in the rear corners, they're 2-12 volt batteries wired in parallel, my fishfinder is also hooked to them batteries with no ill effects even after two years. The rears batteries are in the compartment in front of the rear seat, I extended the deck so I could place them there to keep the weight more center. Them two sets of batteries are 2 pairs of 6 volt golfcart batteries wired in series, by doing this I can run all day with no worries of a dead battery. The charger is between the two rear batteries and I have the rear sets wired to the trolling motor output wires of the charger, and the front set of batteries is wired to the starting battery output. Everything works great, I get home plug in and it's ready to roll in about a day and a half. 

 

Outstanding! Looks great. Is this a 14/36 or 48? I'll have to read up on running batteroes Ina series. I know how it's done and the benefits but don't know how to do it. 

[MDBowHunter]

46 minutes ago, FishHard247 said:

Outstanding! Looks great. Is this a 14/36 or 48? I'll have to read up on running batteroes Ina series. I know how it's done and the benefits but don't know how to do it. 

Thank you, It's a 1542. To run in series you would take two batteries and connect the positive of one battery to the negative of the other battery with a jumper wire, then you take your motor and hook the positive lead to the one open positive terminal on your battery, then hook the negative to the negative on the other battery. In my case it made the 2-6s into one 12v, a lot of guys do this with 2-12s to run 24v motors.   Now on my front I have 2-12s in parallel which is when you take two jumper wires and hook one batteries positive to another batteries positive then hook the negatives together, then hook your motor to one of then batteries. This will almost double the run time of the batteries 

[FishHard247]

I gotcha now. One way doubles the volts, the other, the amps. I'll make sure I have it down for sure before I go at it. It's good to see you have platform seats on a 15/42 and mine will be the same except 14/48 and I'm hoping it won't be to u stable. 

[MDBowHunter]

8 hours ago, FishHard247 said:

I gotcha now. One way doubles the volts, the other, the amps. I'll make sure I have it down for sure before I go at it. It's good to see you have platform seats on a 15/42 and mine will be the same except 14/48 and I'm hoping it won't be to u stable. 

I think you'll be fine, the one thing I did change was I replaced the front seat with a pedestal seat, because your real tight to the edge when attempting to walk around the seat. This isn't a real problem until you have a nice fish on and your trying to get towards the back so the fish can be netted. I used all 6ga wiring for all my motor wiring and would recommend you do the same. I just went to homedepot and bought it by the foot. Doing this will save you a ton over buying pre made hook ups from a boat place or BPS. I also used marinco connectpro plugs for my motors, they're a little costly but well worth it. I originally bought the standard plugs but after using them a half a season I started having issues with them coming loose, so I replaced them with the marinco ones and couldn't be happier. Good luck with your build.