Marine: Boating, Sailing, PWC, GPS and Navigation - understand boat's battery system
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dagross
06-17-09, 11:40 AM
Need info & advice. Bought a 1990 Fisher SV-18 BT. It has 3 12v batteries. One is the cranking/starting battery. Looks like bilge & aerator pumps, fish finder & all accessories run off from it. Could/should I regularly top it off (charge it) before a day's fishing? The other two are solely dedicated to the elec trolling motor. They appear to be set up as a 24v system. Maybe not, I do not know for sure. A single wire connects the pos terminal on one battery to the neg terminal on the other battery. The elec trolling motor leads connect to the free pos terminal on the one battery & the free neg terminal on the other battery. Until I get an onboard charger installed, how do I safely charge these two? Cells appear low in one of the two. Is this distilled water? I thought about disconnecting them & charging them seperately. How to avoid sparking/shorting while doing so? I have an old deep cycle charger which runs off house current. Thanks for any feedback, pos or neg. Dan G.
samuari
06-17-09, 06:34 PM
Well, I don't charge my starting batt before I go out, the motor will charge it as it runs, but you can with a low amperage charger it won't hurt it.
It sounds like your trolling motor is a 24 volt, most trolling motors above 55 lbs of thrust are 24v. As far as charging the deep cycle batts. you can charge them like any other batt pos. and neg. on the same batt without unhooking them.
You can fill the cells with distilled water.
It sounds like your trolling motor is a 24 volt, most trolling motors above 55 lbs of thrust are 24v. As far as charging the deep cycle batts. you can charge them like any other batt pos. and neg. on the same batt without unhooking them.
You can fill the cells with distilled water.
dagross
07-22-09, 05:35 AM
Samuari, thank you. It seems to work for now. Still amazes me how it can be done without disconnecting them. Dan g.
Rick Johnston
07-23-09, 02:08 AM
Still amazes me how it can be done without disconnecting them.
Technically you are disconnecting them ... electrically. By connecting to the positive and negative of a single battery you're cutting the other one out of the mix. The charger sees only the one it's connected to.
If you want to charge both simultaneously with a 12v charger you have to physically disconnect the cable that jumps from the neg on one to the pos on the other.
Many people use a cut-off switch to quickly disconnect the 24volt jumper. Combined with a three-stage charger you can charge all three batteries from house power.
Technically you are disconnecting them ... electrically. By connecting to the positive and negative of a single battery you're cutting the other one out of the mix. The charger sees only the one it's connected to.
If you want to charge both simultaneously with a 12v charger you have to physically disconnect the cable that jumps from the neg on one to the pos on the other.
Many people use a cut-off switch to quickly disconnect the 24volt jumper. Combined with a three-stage charger you can charge all three batteries from house power.