When y'all are charging your trolling motor batteries, do you do a trickle charge (i.e. 2amp) or do you charge at a higher amperage? I generally charge my trolling motor batteries at a 2amp but charge my cranking battery at about a 10amp rate (or whatever the setting is...I can't remember for sure). Any suggestions?

XpressDawg

Most of us run an automatic 3 or 4 bank charger with 10 to 15 Amps per bank. These automatic chargers also maintain the batteries when the boat remains stored between trips. If you fish tournaments or fish more than one day each weekend consecutively then an auto charger is the best way.

You do need to slow charge a Deep Cycle battery but a 2 Amp Trickle Charger is very slow. You need to put back as many Amps as you use in a day before fishing the next day so the T/M batteries are fully charged.

If you are running a 24 volt T/M system with two 200 Amp Deep Cycle Batteries and use 100 Amps out of each fishing a full day then you will have to charge both batteries for 10 hours at 10 Amps = 100 Amps on each battery bank to get them topped off with a full charge.

Using a standard car charger that puts out 50 Amps will rapidly Top Charge a Deep Cycle battery and it will show a full charge but it will not be deep cycle charged.

So if you charge a Deep Cycle Battery to fast (above 15 Amps) it basically turns your T/M Battery into a Cranking battery. The Top Charge will dissipate rapidly like a cranking battery. Just make sure the charger is for Deep Cycle batteries and you'll be fine.


Bazz