# Curious about charging on the go!



## Shiznik (Feb 24, 2008)

I have 2 Deep Cycle 29's in the back of the boat I run the trolling motor off of while I'm out and was needing some advice. Would it make sense to take along the battery charger, plug it into the generatorlater in the trip when the trolling motor gets weak and set it on an 8 amp charge to help power the 29's until the trip is over? Last time out the trolling motor got a little weak for the trip back to the landing. I always charge them after going on the 2 amp setting which usually takes a little while. 

Thanks,

Chris


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## Midnight Rider (Sep 30, 2007)

How long are you staying out????? I run my trolling motor off of two 12 volts tied together and can fish for a good 5 hours before even noticing a slight drop in the getty -up of the trolling motor. And If I havent got a mess of flounder by then well it's time to go home anyway.


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## Shiznik (Feb 24, 2008)

It seemed like I was out about 3-4 hours that trip, but I was trying to cover a lot of area too. The charger showed a 100% charge on the batts before I went. Seemed like I had about 35% power in the trolling motor for the trip back to the landing.


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## Midnight Rider (Sep 30, 2007)

Are you using one of those digital display battery chargers from china- mart???? If so that thing will lie to you and tell you your batteries are charged when there not. How many pound thrust is your trolling motor.


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## Shiznik (Feb 24, 2008)

Yep, you guessed it! China-Mart! lol! Its the digital job too! It shut off and showed the batteries being 100%, maybe I will try to hook it up again to a stright outlet, it had been plugged into a power strip. Think I might run it up to the auto parts house and ask them to give me an output reading on them. They are both 115 amp per hour rated. I don't think I cranked my outboard that night at all. Oh, its a 50# thrust trolling motor.


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## Five Prongs Of Fury (Apr 15, 2008)

I have hooked mine up to the generator before but I try not to make a habit of it. I run a 36 volt trolling motor now so I rarely if ever run out of power. I have been told before that the voltage from the gennycould possiblymess the circuit board in the trolling motor. Like I said, that just hearsay, I don't know for sure, but the times I have done it I haven't had any problem.


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## Shiznik (Feb 24, 2008)

Roger, just want to make sure I'm not lost on this one. I was wondering about having the generator running, plug in the battery charger and then connect the two clamps to the one battery. You are right about the trolling motor, I wish I had a smaller one, the one I have seems too big! Thanks guys!

Chris


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## FlounderAssassin (Sep 28, 2007)

i run the same TM you do off of 2 batteries and my boat is a LOT heavier than yours and i can run for 4-5 hrs without even noticing a drop in power. time to get a new battery charger. get you a good one and you wont be sorry. as far as charging on the go...i wouldnt bother. with the size generator you have and the ammount of light your already at the high end of power draw and i would be afraid that if you tried to run a battery charger on top of that you could run a chance of causing damage to the generator. get you a good battery charger and charge them fully after every trip and you should have no problem at all. this is just my $.02 also i see where your saying that its getting weak on the return trip to the boat ramp...my question to that is why are you using the TM to get you back to the ramp instead of just cranking up your motor?????????


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## Shiznik (Feb 24, 2008)

Oh, I hunted them Flounder all the way back to the truck that night, I was on a mission!


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## Gnwdad (Oct 14, 2007)

I have and always will charge mine on the go. I've been doing it for a couple years now with no problems.


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## J-HOOK (Mar 14, 2009)

I had trouble with the switches burning up in the minn-kotas I switched to a 50 amp 110 to 12 volt converter and never had any problems and i never had to charge a battery.You can run your trolling motor straight off the converter but i always ran mine through my batteries.


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