Battery Charger

[junkman41]

Hello fellow Pontooners,
I was concidering getting a solar powered battery charger for on my pontoon to keep my trolling motor battery charged, there is not any power at my slip. I was wondering if anyone has or is using the PowerPier Ultimate Solar Battery Charger 14 Watt, from iboats, and I was wondering if it would keep both the trolling and the main battery charged.I wanted to insert a link to the charger but I don't know how to do that. any and all input will be helpful
thanks Jack

 

[MH Hawker]

A 14 W will put out around 1 plus amp in full direct sun light, I use a 15 W on mine to keep mine topped off, it will put some charge in it over a period of time, but it takes days not hours.

 

[junkman41]

are you satisfied with yours? I don't want to waste my money if its not going to work to well. I would rather spend alittle more and get something that will work and keep a charge on the battery, I have a long walk from the slip to the parking lot, and you know how heavy batterys are.

 

[ahicks]

I'm wondering about the potential for overcharging with one of these? Seems like without some type of power management you might run into issues regarding boiling the battery? No clue. Just wondering.

 

[bruceb58]

14W will be less than an amp. You can use it with an already charged battery to keep it fully charged. If you got 4AH charge each day, you would be lucky.

 

[junkman41]

thank you for the responces

 

[junkman41]

after looking at the cost of panels that will do the job for what I want, I will continue to charge the battery at home and transport it back and forth....
thanks for the responces

 

[MH Hawker]

are you satisfied with yours? I don't want to waste my money if its not going to work to well. I would rather spend alittle more and get something that will work and keep a charge on the battery, I have a long walk from the slip to the parking lot, and you know how heavy batterys are.

It has worked out very well in my case, after a night out fishing my battery is down about 15 to 20 % and a few days later its back to full charge. Due to a small boat charging system it works nice.

 

[junkman41]

It has worked out very well in my case, after a night out fishing my battery is down about 15 to 20 % and a few days later its back to full charge. Due to a small boat charging system it works nice.

Thanks Jim, I am not to sure what I will do :noidea:

 

[Silvertip]

As Bruce said -- 14 watts is not a solution. You need a much larger panel to consider it to be a "charger". At best it is a maintainer. You will never fully charge or over charge the batteries as the output will never get high enough for effective "charging". On a lawn tractor battery they work fine as a maintainer. I have one in the window of my shed.

 

[Mi duckdown]

Perko switch?

 

[H20Rat]

Get this and mount it on your pontoon! If you have an older pontoon with a hard roof its even easier!

http://www.amazon.com/Solar-Panel-S...bs_auto_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1405YBYXCKDYV2RKS5KA

 

[ggpostal]

$.02 get a small two wheel dolly to carry the batteries on unless there are steps of course. Rolling weight so much nicer.

 

[tblshur]

small generator charge as you fish .just a thought.:joyous: