Considering Removing On-Baord Battery Charger

[cfm56doc]

I have been giving some thought to removing my on-board battery charger for all my local trips. After all it is not charging and is just dead weight while on the water. I figured I would just leave it at home and plug into the boat when I get home. For over night excursion I would re-install it in the boat.

If anyone has gone this route, how are you getting around having to bolt and un-bolt your charger leads every time when you need to use it? Have you added alligator clips to the charger leads or something else?

Thanks in advance.

[bassbama]

connectors are Minn-Kota MKR-12

[cfm56doc]

connectors are Minn-Kota MKR-12

Exactly what I was thinking about doing!

Thanks for the pictures

[Lou r Pitcher]

cfm,
For safety, setup your battery/charger disconnects cables such that they are routinely only made outside of a bilge, well away from where explosive fuel and battery charging gasses can exist.

[jimsch]

For safety, your battery/charger disconnects cables should be designed such that they are routinely only made outside of a bilge, well away from where explosive fuel and battery charging gasses can exist.

Or make sure the charger is unplugged before you connect or disconnect the leads.

[Capw]

Check out the sticky above "my Ranger lost 33 pounds"

[oldgoat188]

I thought the idea of having a on board charger is so you don't have to do what you want to do

[bassbama]

cfm,
For safety, setup your battery/charger disconnects cables such that they are routinely only made outside of a bilge, well away from where explosive fuel and battery charging gasses can exist.

Good reminder the cables in the 3rd picture are about 3ft long and the connection is made well behind the boats transom 1st picture was just to show connection type. Also the + connection tip is the never exposed on the cables that store in the bilge and I also placed yellow caps over the - exposed connector tip for added safety and secure cables with tie-wrap device and cover all your trolling battery connections.

[huntingnick]

Do you loose any voltage through connectors doing it this way?

[Lou r Pitcher]

Fill stage voltage losses matter little provided the wiring or connector does not overheat.

The important finishing voltage of a charger is applied at the end of charging and is when there is almost no current flow. So then, there is almost no voltage losses in the charger's wiring or connectors. Dual Pro for example sells rather lengthy and small size extension wires for their charger's leads.

[Lou r Pitcher]

Or make sure the charger is unplugged before you connect or disconnect the leads.

Even unplugged from an AC outlet, a spark may can be generated from some charger's having large filter caps across their outputs. It may be as well a boat building code violation to include provide boat operator regularly accessed electrical disconnects in the bilge area.

[basshole51]

did you ever do this? how did it turn out?

[Oprod]

I've ran a boat like that now for 11 years. uses quick disconnect that are made to the right size from the automotive stores. normally in the battery section. they are red in color. I used heavy duty battery chargers that do both agm or normal cell from battery tender. available on their website as special order.

[basshole51]

is this what you use? and you use three different single bank battery tender chargers?

[Mechanic Bob]

Check out the posts from Mikexpress and what he did. I did it with a 9 pin connector!

[blkfalc4]

Use a Polak connector. 6-pin for 3 batteries and 9-pin for 4

I've built 2 separate setups, one for my former 519vx and 1 for my tracker.

Install charger in a toolbox from HD

[Capw]

is this what you use? and you use three different single bank battery tender chargers?

Ionic includes these when you buy a charger.

[mikesxpress]

http://www.bbcboards.net/showthread....ferrerid=39498