Battery Charger Setup

[CRANKSTER]

Hey everybody, I've been stewing about on-board charging for some time now. The way my aluminum boat is set-up, my cranking battery is in the rear of the boat and my trolling batteries are in the bow of the boat under the front deck. I would like to install one of the new minn-kota digital on-board chargers to keep from having to remove batteries all the time to charge them. Do you think it would be easier to mount the charger in the bow with the 2 trolling batteries, and just buy the extension cables from MK to run to the back of the boat for my cranking battery? Or would it be easier to just use the on-board for the trolling batteries and use a portable for the cranking battery? I'm sure I'm thinking too much into this whole thing and there's a simple solution, but I figure you guys have dealt with this stuff more than I have since I have little experience with it lol. All help is greatly appreciated. Here is the floor plan of the boat.

[Rangerphil]

Well I would put it with the trolling batteries and not sure but doesn't the big motor charge the cranking battery? My onboard charger does just that, charges the trolling batteries and my motor charges the cranking batter. Hope this helps!

[scrutch]

The Minn Kota chargers charge each battery independently regardless if they're wired in series, parallel, or a single battery. I have 3 TM batteries wired in series and one cranking battery and I have a MK440D four bank charger that handles them all.

The big motor does charge the cranking battery, but if you make a lot of short runs or fish some electric only lakes, the cranking battery will not get charged properly.

I would put the charger up with the TM batteries and run the extended leads to the cranking battery in the rear.

It's a lot rougher ride up front but the MK chargers seem to be built pretty rugged. I think they can handle that.