I just bought a new boat at the Houston boat show. It has a 2 bank charger and I want hear some recommendations on the need for 3 bank charger. It has a 24V TM system hooked to the 2 bank charger but the cranking battery does not get the extra charge. I will be running a single power pole plus a 7 Touch and Elite 5 off this battery. The salesman said the 2 bank would work just fine but I don't want to shortcut on this if it will be a problem. I do store the boat at Lake Fork so sometimes it sits 2-3 weeks without any use. Thanks in advance for any comments. Here is the pic of the boat.

Nice boat! I would definitely go with the three bank. Especially since you mentioned it might be stored for several weeks between usage.

SE Kansas grass grower

Congrat, nice boat.

Storage for a few weeks matters little to battery life "if" boat is always put in storage fully charged and during storage, there are no parasitic loads left connected such as a electronic sensored bilge float. If an AGM battery it can last a year or more without a significant loss of charge.

What matters to cranking battery life is that you run the motor/alternator long enough to fully recharge before storage. You cannot do that if you ever fish in your small lake arm and are then running only a couple minutes back to your boat stall. Such a battery, setting partially discharged soon sulfates its plates and has a shortened life.

Shame on your salesman and boat rigger to short change a boat known to be rigged for typical short runs bass fishing ran with power hungry electronics without equipping with a dedicated charging bank for the cranking/electronics battery.

I would go with a bank for each battery.

Thanks for the feedback.

At this point It may be less hassle and more economical to leave the two bank in place and add a separate charger for the starting battery.

3 bank, for sure !

THe salesman is a scumbag level person. He just wanted the boat gone, and any irk that said it's not right would jeopardize his commission. That is all he's worried about as he (probably correctly) guesses he'd never be selling you another boat anyway.

The boat is NEW. I disagree with the post saying it is easier to just add another 1 bank charger. That is more hassle and takes up more room. Make the dealer swap it out to a 3-bank. Pay the retail difference between 2 bank and 3 bank, which will be your easiest solution, and the boat will be right. Do not let them charge shop time for the swap. They were stupid to EVER rig it that way as Lou says.

While you are at it...I bet the starting battery a Group 24 size battery? If so, make them eat that too! You want at least a Group 27 size battery in there. Make them swap out the tray and the battery. They may point to specs for the outboard and say that the Group 24 is just fine. I say wrong to that. That would be for starting the outboard ONLY in a simple boat with virtually no other loads on the battery. Start listing all the things that drain power once you shut down the outboard and begin to fish. It's a lot on a bass boat, and that battery requirement spec for the outboard doesn't count ALL those other loads. Pushing them to do this, even if you pay a difference in battery cost is a plus for you now. You will be making them swap out the battery tray, and you will avoid running down a too-small battery when you start fishing!

Sounds like quite a hassle to me, LOL!

To the OP, you've got several suggestions to choose from, it's your choice!

Things to consider:

Have you taken possession of the boat yet?

How far do you live from the dealer?

How much is your time worth?

You can buy a "battery tender" type charger for as little as $30 , or a Minn Kota single bank for less than $100.
Academy Sports is one of several places you can do this.

A hassle is being on the lake with a below-need-rated battery that has given up all it's juice leaving the owner to deal with getting the outboard started or otherwise back to the ramp. This can happen because the battery is under-sized or wasn't at full charge when it went out. Both of those issues are routinely avoided by many who just make sure their boat is properly fitted. It hasn't happened to me in 30 years of boating, maybe that has something to do with how my boats get fitted?

Additionally, a starting battery with no regular/easy charge maintenance is going to fail sooner than one that is properly charged and maintained. So, without correction to an improperly rigged boat, one can end up buying a battery more frequently - usually after having had a fishing day spoiled by the failure.

Getting the right battery and a battery charger that supports ALL batteries is not hard - mandatory in my mind, but not hard. I prefer that one-time effort over getting fishing trips messed up over equipment failure!

Flippin, I'm not disagreeing with any of your facts, I just don't think your solution is practical in my opinion.

You have yours, I have mine.

It's all good!

The OP can choose his.

On a related note, I recommend EVERY boat carry a set of jumper cables.

Most of the time, if the starting battery gets too weak to crank the big motor, one of the trolling motor batteries will assist enough to start it. Worse case, a fellow boater can get you going in just a few minutes.

Great looking boat A 3 bank is best

Hey Colonel.....congrats on the new toon.......I got my boat from this same dealer same way back in 08......had many starting issues on the lake which they could never figure out "why". Upgraded to a group 31 starting battery (PM1) and from the stock 2 bank to a noco genious 3 bank and never looked back......and yes, always carry a set of jumper cables.

I could say so much about this dealer, but I need to stay quiet because I vowed to never go back and didn't.....so they may have gotten better......