Charge Trolling Motor via power inverter, bad idea?

So a couple times this summer we have gone tent camping and havent had a campsite without electricity without any place to charge our trolling motor. Our battery usually will last us a couple days of fishing, however if we stay longer and do more fishing we usually end up with a low battery.

So my question is would it be a dumb idea if I hooked up my 1.5 amp trickle charger to a power inverter that plugs into my trucks cigarette lighter?

If so, does anyone have a recomendation on an inverter or a specific wattage of the inverter?

Thanks

Re: Charge Trolling Motor via power inverter, bad idea?

Power inverters are inefficient when converting 12V to 120V (they turn a lot of energy into heat). Additional efficiency will be lost through the trickle charger tuning 120V back into 12V (same thing, turning energy into heat).

If you want to charge your trolling motor battery using your truck's battery, simply connect a set of jumper cables from your truck's battery to the trolling motor battery (positive of truck battery to positive of trolling motor battery, negative of truck battery to negative of trolling motor battery).

If the truck is not running, the two batteries will equalize (the truck battery will drain and the trolling motor battery will charge until both batteries reach voltage equilibrium). If your trolling motor battery is really low, your truck battery may be drained to the point that it won't start your truck. So be careful.

If the truck is running with the two batteries connected with jumper cables as above, both batteries will charge until they reach a (mostly) fully charged state at which time your truck's alternator will stop charging both batteries. I say mostly because a deep cycle trolling motor battery will charge slightly differently than a starting battery. However, you'll get pretty close to full charge on both batteries doing this.

Depending on the state of trolling motor battery charge, reaching either equilibrium or a fully charged state will take 30 minutes to three hours.

Re: Charge Trolling Motor via power inverter, bad idea?

Greatlake said:

...If the truck is not running, the two batteries will equalize (the truck battery will drain and the trolling motor battery will charge until both batteries reach voltage equilibrium). If your trolling motor battery is really low, your truck battery may be drained to the point that it won't start your truck. So be careful...

Click to expand...

If the truck is NOT running, the Trucks battery will discharge into the Trolling battery, but the trolling battery will NOT be charged.
Because of the Chemical Physics, a lead acid cell MUST have its terminal voltage above ~13.5v before it will charge at all. No way around it! 14-14.5 volts is a typical charge voltage.

Connect the Trolling battery with the jumpers. The same as if jumping another vehicle, and START the Truck.
Let it idle for more than a few hours and the trolling battery will be charged. :joyous:
Don't run out of Gas!

Re: Charge Trolling Motor via power inverter, bad idea?

Do you have a small generator at the camp? If not, might be time to invest in one. Even a small 2000 watt generator will power the biggest consumer-use multi-bank 12v battery charger you can find, and its MUCH cheaper running a generator than your truck engine.

Re: Charge Trolling Motor via power inverter, bad idea?

OR the cheapest and possibly the best idea is to simply buy another battery for the trolling motor.... when the first gets low swap em out and charge both when you get back home

idling the truck for hours to charge the battery is expensive in more ways than one and battery for $100 gets the job done