FYI: Onboard Charger

[Nightprowler]

I have a 3 bank onboard charger. I had a battery go down today while on the lake. I unhooked the dead battery and replaced it with a spare. I left 1 of the chargers banks unhooked and plugged it in to charge the other 2 batteries. I was testing the old battery, when I smelled something melting. I found out the hard way that you can't leave one of the banks unhooked. You must hook all 3 banks to a battery. You can hook 2 (or all 3) banks to 1 battery. It didn't charge any of the batteries. What it did was fry the wire's to the sonar. Lucky for me, the sonar was safe and sound in it's storage bag.

[Cane Pole]

You have the leads to the bank shorted out?
This should not happen.

[CatFan]

I've never seen one where it made a difference to leave one bank unhooked, and there's no way the charger could do anything to damage wires leading out of the battery.

[joejv4]

Yeah... I have my onboard charger(2 bank Guest) mounted to the wall in my garage and just disconnect from my TM battery and hang the leads on nails wrapped in elec tape about 1 foot apart. Have never had any problems with the leads not being connected. I'm with Tom on this - it sounds like the loose leads somehow managed to short together. What surprises me is that the fuse didn't blow.

[Nightprowler]

It's the XPS 555 series from BPS. The instructions read all leads must be connected to a battery. The sonar wires were attached to the battery with the charger lead. When a lead is left off it will not charge or float. I figure some how the power was being sent up the sonar wire?? anyway it fried the wire.

[Cane Pole]

It's the XPS 555 series from BPS. The instructions read all leads must be connected to a battery. The sonar wires were attached to the battery with the charger lead. When a lead is left off it will not charge or float. I figure some how the power was being sent up the sonar wire?? anyway it fried the wire.

Yep. You right That what the book says.

I have an xps 44. Hmmmmmmmmm.???

[oldwun]

That is correct for that charger

[CatFan]

It's the XPS 555 series from BPS. The instructions read all leads must be connected to a battery. The sonar wires were attached to the battery with the charger lead. When a lead is left off it will not charge or float. I figure some how the power was being sent up the sonar wire?? anyway it fried the wire.

You could hook an arc welder or even a nuclear reactor up to the battery and you aren't going to damage that sonar wire. There would have to be short at the other end, or no current would flow.

[woodduck]

Nightprowler, I killed my 3 bank charger by leaving one of the sets of leads unhooked too. The book for the replacement said to hook up all leads. Another lesson learned.

[ShortStorie]

I'm no electrical whiz but I remember reading that some chargers have a single charging unit that distributes the load evenly to all banks while others (like the Minn Kota) are actually two or three separate chargers in one casing. My old Minn Kota lost one bank so I disconnected and taped those leads and continued to use the other banks to charge the trolling motor batteries. Worked fine.