Battery Charging Question

[Jason L]

Hi,



As I said about a week ago, my starting battery is dead. I took the dead battery out last night, and I don't think it was connected to the onboard battery charger.



On a 2004 PT 185, is the starting battery supposed to be hooked up to a charger after use? I was under the impression that it gets charged when the motor is running.



THanks in advance

 

[Jim B]

It all depends on your configuration and there are lots of variables here. Do you have a 1,2, 3, or 4 bank charger? 12, 24 or 36 volt system? Without knowing what you have i really cant answer wether or not it should be hooked up. For instance if you have a 1 bank chagger and a 12 volt system with 1 battery and a starting battery the starting battery would not be hooked up because the charger dosent have the extra charging bank.



To answer your question on the motor charging the battery. Yes it will and should but in my expirence most fishermen dont run the big motor enough to fully charge it. If you fish a lot of small lakes this can really be a problem. I fish a lot of small lakes and some pretty big lakes like Winni and Champlain and when i get home the starting battery is never fully charged. Because of this i like to have my starting battery hooked to the onboard charger. I run a 3 bank charger and a 24 volt trolling system. The three bank gives me three leads, one for each trolling battery and one for the starting battery.



Post up your configuration. charger, tm system etc and i can help you figure out what you need to do.

 

[Bill Hamilton]

Like Jim B said, it depends on your config. I have a 36 V troller and a 3 bank charger which is ONLY hooked up to the 3 trolling batteries. Once a week I put a charge into my starting battery from a standard marine battery charger (not on-board). Seems to work for me as the batteries are in excess of 4 years old and still going strong. If you only have a 12V troller and a 1 bank charger I would spend the money to upgrade to a least a 2 bank charger. I didn't want to spend the money to go to a 4-bank charger since I upgraded the troller after I bought the boat.

 

[Jeff Nichols]

Not to hijack this thread, but here's a question that parallels this subject:



Is it possible, with a 2 bank charger ( 24 v; one to each t/m battery) to rig up a way to charge the crank battery without switching to a 3 bank charger?



Thanks!

 

[Bill Hamilton]

Jeff - Only if you take one of the leads from the trolling battery and attach it to the starting battery. You can then switch back to the trollers and the fully charged one will trickle charge while the "other" troller will charge until full. Pain in the butt if you ask me so that's why I use the marine charger which I just plug in for the starter and then put it away. No messy cables to screw up.

 

[Jeff Nichols]

Bill-



I see what you mean. That's what I've been doing, too. Thanks!