Cabelas pro series onboard charger?

[jbmaine]

Hi all,

  Is anyone using one of these? They seem to get good reviews and the price point, life time warranty seems attractive.

                                                                                     Thanks

                                                                                              Jim 

[Arcs&sparks]

I have the 3bank charger and so does my boss. His gets a lot of use and is over 3years old. Mines been almost totally submerged over night while docked on great east during a storm.  

 

Only thing to pay attention to is overcharging.  With a 3bank for example,  you have to connect 3 batteries for the charger to work.  I used to only have 2 in my boat,  so I used a spare battery to connect each time I needed to charge.  Over time the spare battery started leaking acid.  It says in the manual it won't overcharge and only puts the right amount of current to each battery.  But in this case I think it was still putting a charge to the already charged battery.  

 

Another feature is you can leave it plugged in all winter and every 30 days(?) it will put a load on the batteries and them charge them again to prolong the life.

 

Its the only charger I have owned so can't speak of other brands and their features.

[jbmaine]

Thanks, that's good info. I've fished Great East several times. Are you local to the area?

                                                                                               Jim

[Arcs&sparks]

Yeah I'm in Alfred. My family has rented a camp there for the past few years so I've  fished it Probly 5 times,  That's a tough lake,  I'm not used to bass fishing that type of lake lol.  Done well with smallies on the rock piles.  But I spent bout 6 hrs in "the basins" last time I was there and got a whopping 1 fish..a pickerel.  The next morning i was trolling for rainbows and salmon and caught a 3lb smallie suspended 30' down in 75 FOW.  But couldn't catch a bass to save my life where they "should be" have you done well there?

 

That was off topic... The charger does it's job. It IS waterproof,  and I see it on sale a couple times a year.  I Think I paid $150 for mine.  Despite the spare battery issue, It works as advertised. 

[jbmaine]

I've found Great East to be hit or miss. There are places close by G.E. that have more consistent fishing. I'm in Eliot and fish that area a lot.

  As for the charger, I'm thinking I'll see what the prices are on black Friday.

                                                                     Jim

[SuperCorona]

I had to buy a new charger after my portable charger was stolen so I went with the Cabelas Pro Series 12 amp 2 bank unit.  I mounted it in one of my rod boxes and it works great.