Re: battery chargers
On board charger are mounted in the boat and wired to your battery. If your have two batteries then your want a charger that will charge both batteries. All you need to do is plug in on board charger to shore power and it will charge your batteries. All on board charger I have see are Smart automatic chargers. They will fully charge without over charging and can be left connected with out damage.<br /><br />Regular charger is like you would use for your car. It is portable and can be hooked up to charge a battery. Some are dumb manual charger and can overcharge a battery but can also get Smart Automatic chargers. They are designed to charge one battery at a time.<br /><br />Two batteries on board. How you wire is personal preference but I like to wire so everything needed to run the boat is wired to the starting battery. Also important saftey gear. As an example you have been fishing all day and your trolling battery is dead. On the way back home you hit something and are taking on water. I would really like my GPS and VHF radio to be connected to my good starting battery so I can put out a Mayday and tell them I am sinking my postion is. Would also like Bildge pump and blower to be wired to good starting battery.<br /><br />Starting battery charged by motor I would wire navigation lights, horn, compass, Bilge pump, bilge blower, GPS, VHF radio, depth finder, winsheild wiper.<br /><br />Trolling battery not charged by motor.<br />Trolling motor, livewell pumps, stereo, downriggers, flood lights.
