Battery charging station?

[Cody28]

I have a small 14 foot boat that I built a deck on. I’m storing my trolling motor battery under the deck, so it is a pain to get to it to charge. I am also moving onto a small lake where I will be able to keep the boat docked in the water, so I would love to not have to take the battery out of the boat to charge. Is there any product that I can charge up and connect on the boat to charge the battery underneath? Really stretching here I know haha. Thanks for any input. 

[Zippo Guy]

I'm new and ignorant about boats and bass fishing, but trying to learn. I have a small runabout that we keep in a slip. I picked up a small solar trickle battery charger. I've had it about 2 weeks and so far no issues.  About $25.00 on Amazon. If it continues to keep the battery charged and nobody steals it, we are happy. Just a thought. 

[GreenPig]

I would look at an on board charger. All you'd have to do is plug it in if you can get power to your dock. Photo of my on board charger on my 1448. My batteries are under the rear seat.

[Zippo Guy]

We have the onboard charger on our houseboat connected to our solar system so we don't have to run cords anywhere and it works great. We went with the small solar for the runabout so we didn't have to run cords from the boat to a power. The closest power is 2 slips away and running long cords is frowned upon. 

[Unk]

As mentioned above , I guess the main question is whether you have power at the dock . I've got to assume there is dock power or you wouldn't be asking the question. If so, the onboard charger would be ideal as long as it can monitor charge rate so as to avoid cooking your batteries. Another simple solution is to run cables from + and - terminals and attach them (with covers) to the outer edge of your deck ?? I know of "energy packs" used to jump start vehicles but they wouldn't charge the battery . Even if they could , they would be very bad for your battery.

[Way2slow]

I'm not understanding taking it out to charge it.  A couple feet of 12 or 14ga wire and a SB-50 connector would make a pig tail from the battery to a convenient location to make it easy to plug in.

 

[cyclops2]

I also use a small fork truck battery connector system. Anderson Power Pole # SB-50  ( 50 amp. ).  Sold by www.digikey.com  

www.mcmaster.com also sells 50 battery  amp connectors.

[MN Fisher]

I got a NOCO 5x2 for the F-9 and this adaptor to give me an external point to plug into. The 5x2 plugs into the socket, the 'round part' mounts to part of the decking and you plug a standard extension cord into it.

[cyclops2]

You do have to be careful about all Solar Powered panel left connected. At night or if stored in a dark place they CAN and do discharge if in darkness for long periods.  A switch or a disconnect plug should be used.  Most small outboards can have a simple 6 amp charger built into them. Check with a same make dealer. My little 9.9 has a charger  to recharge the battery. It can also over charge it with lots of running. The fish finder will run the battery down after many full days of use.

[Way2slow]

A little gee whiz info about the Anderson connectors.  For instance, the SB-50.  It's rated at how much current can be going through it when it's unplugged and not have to worry about arcing and burning the terminals.  It will handle a lot more than just 50 amps without heating up or worry about voltage drop, as long as you are not unplugging it under a load.  For instance, I've seen numbers of SB-350's running 600 amp loads on them and not get warm.  I've run as much as 80 amps on a SB-50.  I will say though, for that it would be better to run the SB-75.

[Cody28]

4 hours ago, cyclops2 said:

You do have to be careful about all Solar Powered panel left connected. At night or if stored in a dark place they CAN and do discharge if in darkness for long periods.  A switch or a disconnect plug should be used.  Most small outboards can have a simple 6 amp charger built into them. Check with a same make dealer. My little 9.9 has a charger  to recharge the battery. It can also over charge it with lots of running. The fish finder will run the battery down after many full days of use.

Seems ideal since my dock is not near a power source. 

[cyclops2]

Way to go Cody. 

I con verted my Outboard switch to the heavy duty version. I leave lights, Fish finder on some times.  So with the heavy duty version I can turn off all the stuff with the key. I do remember to do that. With a trolling motor ?  Now a SMALL MASTER SWITCH becomes a better choice. Or the simple knife switch that bolts to a battery terminal.  It works like you removed a battery post cable. That will stop recharging the battery.  Picking the best setup is not always the simples thing sometimes.  I used to draw a complete wiring diagram before buying & deciding anything.

 

If it does not work on paper.  Try a different approach