On Sep 9, 7:12*am, 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.

There's a local guy who has a jon boat with some small 8 or 9 hp. two
stroke with no charging system, ...pull rope and mag. He has a
trolling motor and one battery. I dont' knwo f its a trolling battery
or a car job, but he got tired of stringing an extension cord out to
his boat shed and hooking a battery charger on the thing, so he got a
cheap harbor freight solar panel and clipped it onto the posts. I
though, "this'll never go" but he's said he hasn't' put a charger on
his battery yet. and says it's always "hot"

OK, this guy goes fishing about every saturday afternoon. But I dont'
know how much of a serious workout his trolling motor and battery go
through.

But........