I'd like to have a solar trickle charger but need it to terminate to a standard female plug to plug into my 3 bank charger. All the ones I see go to battery cables or cigarette lighter, and not finding anything to convert the SAE cable to a standard female plug. Anyone see something like that?

The problem lies with the solar panels. They output DC, the charger takes AC. You’d have to have an inverter. The inverters are hugely inefficient. That would negate any advantages of the solar addition. You’d need a HUGE solar array, like a southern face of your homes roof kinda huge. Home solar systems have large battery banks that store the DC and then, with some loss, inverters to convert it to AC.

This is one of the downfalls to solar on a residential level.

hook it straight to the battery, one panel per battery.

only way to do it and get a charge

ok thx. I was thinking of leaving my boat at a storage facility out closer to lakes I fish, but would need a way to charge in between trips if it didn't have any electricity.

solar for maintaining in a storage place is really not very practical, have to have panels in optimum sunlight and that means running wire which increases resistance and will drop the amount going to the battery if too long.

you can take a 7 way plug, wire from plug to back of trailer, and split connections to trolling batteries, fuse them with 40 amp at the 7 way (only one fuse needed).

whole lot easier than it sounds and you get the benefit of charging while driving.


other option is pricey but you can change to lithiums, light enough that pulling/install is not bad at all and you can take to the house and charge right.

lithiums charge in a couple of hrs and hold it much much longer than flooded cell or agm, no drain down from just sitting.