onboard charger

[Rick Blackmore]

Wife just bought me a 3 bank 30 amp onboard charger (Minn Kota) for my birthday, bless her heart. I have an 2000 18ft Targa. Anybody have any experience for the best location for mounting? Will have a 24 volt Auto Pilot in near future. Also what worked best for battery placement. Anyone have the same setup? Darn leads on the charger are only 6ft long. Also, till I have use for the third set of leads, what do you do with them if they're not being used. Thanks for any help.



Rick

 

[Michael Snow]

Rick, my FIRST suggestion would be to find out how much that puppy cost. Compare it to a Guest charger and if the cost is similar or lower for the Guest, please buy the Guest. The reason is that Guest stands behind their product and has been a good friend to this site and the users. As a matter of fact, if you'll look for a message recently from Sue D, you'll see that she's giving anyone who requests it (from this site), a freebie kit, which includes a power inlet that fits Guest chargers.



Also, Guest chargers are filled with some sort of insulating potting, so that they're not light, but there's no air space inside the charger and therefore, no water gets in either.



It's a top-notch company and a top-quality product. The Minn-Kota charger is probably simply another charger that's been rebadged (and in theory could be a Guest charger or any other company's).



As for mounting the charger, I don't have that boat, so I can't help there. In my Xpress, I mounted in the bilge. In my Nitro 911, under the rear storage bins, is a huge void, where the previous owner moved the batteries and charger to.



On the third set of leads that won't be used for the time being, insulate each one so they don't make contact. To do this, I would heavily wrap from about an inch behind the unexposed wire all the way to the tip of the lead and back again several times. Now, it's insulated. Get a bottle of 3m liquid electrical tape and dunk the end into it (to SEAL the tape from moisture). This way, you can just cut the tape off when the time comes to use that lead. If you just dunk the end in the liquid electrical tape, I fear that the thickness of insulation may not be enough, and you'll have a fun time trying to scrape it off the metal when you are ready to use it. Of course, you need to wrap each lead individually (hot and ground) and not tape them together when you're done. You don't want the leads creating an arc.



In case my description hasn't made it painfully obvious, I have a healthy fear of electricity .



Seriously, on the charger, I strongly recommend Guest because they support those who support them -- a lot of companies don't.

 

[Al Greco]

Rick, Best place to mount the charger is in the bilge area. Mount according to the directions (some chargers have to be mounted horizontal vs. vertical with a certain amount of space on each side for cooling purposes) The 3rd. set of wires in some cases should be doubled up and put on the battery that is not used for cranking the engine. Your manaual will tell how/if it should be hooked to the same battery where the other non cranking lead is. The wires should be marked or color coded on which one is to be used for the cranking battery and which ones are to be used for your trolling moter battery(s). The instructions should answer your questions on your specific model of charger.

 

[Rick Hale]

Hey Rick-- I have a 03 Targa 18sc-- Have a Guest 3 bank 15amp charge mounted in the front right storage locker(front bulkhead vert. mount).--I make sure the locker door remains opem while the charger is pluged in--I used 14gage externtion cords to run to each of the batteries---Used crimp terminals and heat shrink tubing. Used 2 - 25' - 3wire - 14 gage extentions-- cheap at Lowe's.-- easy to work with--Just used the white and black wire.



If I had a digital cam. --I would post some pics.

Hey guys you can put that on my Christmas list..LOL.



Good Luck Rick -- HaleDamage

 

[Marke Cicero]

Rick,



Do yourself a HUGE favor and follow mikesnow's FIRST suggestion.

 

[Rick Hale]

Thanks Marke --

Will make sure I use some "liquid tape" over the double layer of Heat shrink tubing. The Guest charger is almost directly below the the hatch of the front locker so there is good ventilation with the hatch open. This is the same place the dealer mounted the Guest 2 bank charger that came with the boat. Got the 3bank to make sure the cranking battery stays charged.

The biggest problem I have is not getting out fishing enough..

Thanks Again HaleDamage

 

[Mark Gross]

Buy a Guest charger or you may be replacing after a year like I just had to do when my MINN-KOTA went bad and MINN-KOTA didn't want to here about it. It sounds also like you have got a great wife hold on to her.

 

[David B]

You'll hear a lot on this board about how great Guest is and how they stand behind Guest products. I have three guest chargers. One is a dead 2613. Emails to Guest tech support about the dead 2613 have gone unanswered (must not want to hear about it). I called Sue and her response was to buy a new one because it cost more to fix them then the cost of a new charger. I had already fought through mounting the Guest charger so I replaced the dead charger with a new 2613. I didn't want to drill new holes for mounting a different charger. I actually like the Guest charger but I don't consider Guest to be anything special. Do some resarch on the Minnkota. If people who own them are happy with it keep it. Minnkota warranty is three years the Guest is only two. Minnkota support on trolling motors is exceptional. I doubt that support for the chrgers could be any worse then Guests has been in my case.

 

[Mark Gross]

Sometimes trouble just follows some people!

 

[Paul Mazza]

Been running a Minkota charger for almost two years. No problems of any kind and a pleasantly fast charge rate. Battery chargers are not brain surgery...