wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:08:48 -0400, "Lu Powell"
wrote:


"it's me, Jim" "j i wrote in message
. ..
Lu Powell wrote:
I recently bought a used Champion brand bass boat. It has a battery
dedicated to the trolling motor that is not wired in to the charging
circuit for the cranking battery. The trolling motor battery gets
charged
at home prior to a fishing trip.

Is there a simple fix that would let me charge both batteries at the
same
time while on the water, and use the trolling motor battery without
draining the cranking battery?

It's not likely that you would run your engine long enough to
significantly charge the deep cycle trolling battery. Small outboards
often don't have the charge capacity to charge two batteries. You can
test
the capabilities by temporarily paralleling the batteries with jumpers.
I
don't need to remind you that you need to be careful about shorting
things
out and creating sparks.

Thanks for the info. The outboard is a 70 hp Mercury. Do you know if its
charging capacity is adequate for two batteries as I described?

Either 9 a (the unregulated one) or 16a (the regulated one)

OK. Thanks to you and all the others who replied so quickly and well.