OMG - A boating question
 

"it's me, Jim" "j i wrote in message
...
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?


I don't, but you could refer to a service manual or ask Dave Brown or Jim
Granis. I'd want to know before I invested in a combiner, isolator, or
selector switch. Also you will need to decide weather you want to keep the
battery at the bow and run charging wires aft.

Thanks. Both batteries are aft.

OMG - A boating question
 

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.

OMG - A boating question
 

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?

I have this one on my bass boat and it works great.

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/st..._SearchResults

OMG - A boating question
 

H the K wrote:
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?


If your outboard's alternator has the "juice" and proper circuitry to
charge two batteries, yes. You could accomplish this with a good
multi-position battery switch. That way, when the outboard is running,
you could set the switch to "BOTH" and both batteries would charge, and
when you wanted the trolling motor only, you could flip the switch to
"2" or whatever the trolling motor is connected to on that switch.

Assuming your trolling motor battery is in the bow, you'd have to run
heavy, heavy battery cables to the switch in the stern. You'd also have
to remember to flip the switch.

This is not a great solution for you, though. In an emergency, if you
needed the outboard in a hurry, you'd have to remember to flip the
switch in order for the outboard to start.

You'd be better off adding another 12-volt battery at the bow for the
trolling motor so it would have two 12-volt batteries wired in parallel.
That would give you more trolling motor time. But you'd still have to
charge 'em up separately.

SW Tom probably could give you more specific and perhaps better
directions on this. But what you want to do is do-able.

WAFA is clueless. Don't try to charge both at the same time. They are
very different batteries.

OMG - A boating question
 

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?


It would depend on the alternator output. The one I suggested will
favor the cranking battery and then switch to the trolling battery.

My 90HP Yamaha 4 stroke has a large alternator so the trolling battery
gets a lot of attention.

OMG - A boating question
 

"D" wrote in message
...
H the K wrote:
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?


If your outboard's alternator has the "juice" and proper circuitry to
charge two batteries, yes. You could accomplish this with a good
multi-position battery switch. That way, when the outboard is running,
you could set the switch to "BOTH" and both batteries would charge, and
when you wanted the trolling motor only, you could flip the switch to "2"
or whatever the trolling motor is connected to on that switch.

Assuming your trolling motor battery is in the bow, you'd have to run
heavy, heavy battery cables to the switch in the stern. You'd also have
to remember to flip the switch.

This is not a great solution for you, though. In an emergency, if you
needed the outboard in a hurry, you'd have to remember to flip the switch
in order for the outboard to start.

You'd be better off adding another 12-volt battery at the bow for the
trolling motor so it would have two 12-volt batteries wired in parallel.
That would give you more trolling motor time. But you'd still have to
charge 'em up separately.

SW Tom probably could give you more specific and perhaps better
directions on this. But what you want to do is do-able.

WAFA is clueless. Don't try to charge both at the same time. They are
very different batteries.

He's killfiled already.