On Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:27:25 -0400, NotNow wrote:

Tom Francis - SWSports wrote:
On Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:12:56 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:02:05 -0400, Gene
wrote:

On Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:51:30 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports penned the
following well considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:

|recharging trolling motor batteries?

No... but I'd like to hear other folks experiences using solar float
charging...
Solar float charging seems to work well. I haven't tried it myself
but have heard a lot of success stories. A small, inexpensive panel
is all you need unless there is a lot of leakage in the electrical
system.

Recharging a trolling motor is a different matter since serious amps
are required. You have to calculate how many amp-hours need to be
replaced, and how much daylight time you have available. Most people
also recommend derating the panel capacity by at least 50% to allow
for all the inefficiencies that creep in to the process.

I found a few websites - look the figures from my 24Vdc motor, added a
few things up and it comes to roughly $4,000 and that's conservative.

Think I'm going in a different direction. :)

Yeah, like a Wal-Mart battery charger!!!!!

Well, that's kind of the problem - no power to run the charger. I
have an on-board charger.