Jay, is this for fresh water or salt water use? If salt water, my only
advice as to an on board charger is, be sure it's compatible and/or has a
good warranty. I've just completed my third summer of salt water use and
have been amazed at the corrosive and destructive nature of the salt!
wrote in message
oups.com...
I would like to know what are the benefits of using an onboard charger
instead of a portable charger.

I have been using rechargers for many type of household electronic
equipments (such as digital carmera, toy cars...etc). Therefore, I am
very familiar with portable recharger. But I notice that there are
many onboard rechargers available in marine supply store when I was
trying to shop for a recharger. I can imagine one benefit of having an
onboard recharger: It is neatly mounted inside the battery compartment,
instead of being sliding around on the floor of the battery
compartment. What are the other benefits? Can I connect the recharger
with the various batteries (I have 2 batteries, will be 3 in the
future) in a permanent fashion instead of using alligator clips? Then
I only need to run a power cord from an outdoor power outlet to the
receptacle of the recharger. Then I don't need to remember which
alligator clip goes to which terminal on the battery. That will be a
very nice feature if I understand this correctly.

A side-question:
Should I use a 10-amp or a 15-amp battery charger? I believe a
regular 110-volt household power outlet should provide at least 15-amp.
This means either 10-amp or 15-amp charger should work if I understand
this correctly. Then why would one person choose 10-amp over the
15-amp version or the other way around? Does a 15-amp version simply
charge the batteries faster? If I want to charge two 12-volt batteries
plus one 24-volt battery overnight (12-hours), does choosing the 15-amp
version makes any difference to me?

I urgently need to know this info because I need to buy a battery
recharger pretty soon.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Jay Chan

Jay, is this for fresh water or salt water use? If salt water, my only
advice as to an on board charger is, be sure it's compatible and/or has a
good warranty. I've just completed my third summer of salt water use and
have been amazed at the corrosive and destructive nature of the salt!

I will use the boat for both freshwater and sal****er. I bought a
ProMariner onboard charger last evening. It states that it can handle
sal****er environment. I have a feeling that I will be OK because the
charger will be mounted inside the center console (a protected
compartment area), and that area is dry. How did yours get to be in
such a bad shape? Did you put it in an area that was open to the
elements? Did you leave the boat in a marina instead of on a trailer?

Thanks for the warning though.

Jay Chan

I didn't loose a charger but other things like:
battery cables that had steel ends rusted into two pieces.
a Perko batery selector switch that somehow got water inside and drained
batteries and apparently shorted out the rectifyer charging circuit.
Even though used, I just replaced the axles and springs (one axle was new
three years ago!)
studs on the engine, exposed threads are rusted badly
etc, etc,
LD

wrote in message
oups.com...
Jay, is this for fresh water or salt water use? If salt water, my only
advice as to an on board charger is, be sure it's compatible and/or has
a
good warranty. I've just completed my third summer of salt water use
and
have been amazed at the corrosive and destructive nature of the salt!

I will use the boat for both freshwater and sal****er. I bought a
ProMariner onboard charger last evening. It states that it can handle
sal****er environment. I have a feeling that I will be OK because the
charger will be mounted inside the center console (a protected
compartment area), and that area is dry. How did yours get to be in
such a bad shape? Did you put it in an area that was open to the
elements? Did you leave the boat in a marina instead of on a trailer?

Thanks for the warning though.

Jay Chan

I didn't loose a charger but other things like:
battery cables that had steel ends rusted into two pieces.
a Perko batery selector switch that somehow got water inside and drained
batteries and apparently shorted out the rectifyer charging circuit.
Even though used, I just replaced the axles and springs (one axle was new
three years ago!)
studs on the engine, exposed threads are rusted badly
etc, etc,

Sound terrible. You must be living near a beach with all the salty air
coming from the ocean to rust everything out.

Jay Chan

I guess the lesson I've learned is to clean, protect, rinse, and remove any
salt deposits or any suspected deposits from any steel. Deposits are not so
bad (where easily seen) on glass, aluminum and fiberglass. Although I have
an "aluminum" trailer which is relatively unaffected by the salt, I now do a
through rinse job on the steel wheels, axles, springs, wheeled jack, exposed
steel fasteners on the engine and do a freshwater flush when I get back to
the house. It dawned on me that in spite of the care I now take, the
trailer sets out all day after launching the boat, potentially rusting away
while I'm out fishing. Time permitting, I try to inspect the axles and all
steel hardware on the trailer at the launch when the boat is off and even
take a wet (fresh water) sponge, wipe off the salt at a nick and touch up
with a can of Rust-Oleum. Hopefully this will make the equipment last much
longer.
LD

wrote in message
ups.com...
I didn't loose a charger but other things like:
battery cables that had steel ends rusted into two pieces.
a Perko batery selector switch that somehow got water inside and drained
batteries and apparently shorted out the rectifyer charging circuit.
Even though used, I just replaced the axles and springs (one axle was
new
three years ago!)
studs on the engine, exposed threads are rusted badly
etc, etc,

Sound terrible. You must be living near a beach with all the salty air
coming from the ocean to rust everything out.

Jay Chan

LD wrote:
I guess the lesson I've learned is to clean, protect, rinse, and remove any
salt deposits or any suspected deposits from any steel. Deposits are not so
bad (where easily seen) on glass, aluminum and fiberglass. Although I have
an "aluminum" trailer which is relatively unaffected by the salt, I now do a
through rinse job on the steel wheels, axles, springs, wheeled jack, exposed
steel fasteners on the engine and do a freshwater flush when I get back to
the house. It dawned on me that in spite of the care I now take, the
trailer sets out all day after launching the boat, potentially rusting away
while I'm out fishing. Time permitting, I try to inspect the axles and all
steel hardware on the trailer at the launch when the boat is off and even
take a wet (fresh water) sponge, wipe off the salt at a nick and touch up
with a can of Rust-Oleum. Hopefully this will make the equipment last much
longer.
LD


I've wondered if it would be worthwhile taking along one of the hand
pump, pressurized garden sprayers full of fresh water. You could give a
quick spray as soon as the trailer comes out of the water.... should
help until a proper hosing can be done.

I've wondered if it would be worthwhile taking along one of the hand
pump, pressurized garden sprayers full of fresh water. You could give a
quick spray as soon as the trailer comes out of the water.... should
help until a proper hosing can be done.

This sounds like an interesting idea. We should get one with a metal
tip (where the water comes out). The plastic one is no good. The
spray is not even if we use a plastic tip.

It tends to wet the surface (that it is designed for), but not wash
away stuff from the surface. In order to wash away stuff, we need to
spray the same area long enough. This is still probably better than
not doing anything at all.

Jay Chan