Charging the Trolling Motor Battery

[Bluegill Bill]

My Trolling battery is completely seperate from my cranking battery which is charged by the outboard. Is there a way to connect the trolling battery to the cranking battery someway so that it will have a continuous charge on it? That would make things a whole lot easier instead of having to charge the trolling battery each couple of trips. Thanks all.

"Shep"

[TnT]

Just run you a wire from positive to positive and one from negative to negative. Just dont run your trolling motor so much that its runs the batteries down to weak to crank your motoe when you are ready to go. I would reccomend an on board charger. Just plug it in when you get home and unplug before you leave. You'll always have a full charge on your trolling battery when you leave. I just ordered a 3 bank on board charger for my boat, but I always charge my batteries every time I get home and top them off the day before I go fishing...Rather be safe than sorry!!!

[allen]

speaking of chargers, has anyone tried the solar chargers at bass pro? whats the results?

[papasage]

outbord doesen`t charge enough to keep up a troling batter. unles you are a bass fisherman and do more running than fishing. i think it is onlwy 10 amps.

[foul hook]

Not a good idea to connect the two together. You dont want to run the electronics off TM battery. I am not an authority. That is the word that i get from the authorities.

[Shellback]

speaking of chargers, has anyone tried the solar chargers at bass pro? whats the results?

I think they are more of a battery maintainer. They would probably require days to recharge a trolling battery. Their more expensive ones, Sunsei 500 and 1500 only put out 500 and 1500 milliamps!

[EARL KITCHENS]

Bill, according to INTERSTATE BATTERIES you should only put two amps at a time into a trolling battery if you want it to last. Put it in slow and take it out slow is what their customer service rep told me. Do not run your trolling motor and fish finder off the same battery either. As Foul Hook said this is not from me but from someone that knows.

[papasage]

i ran mt troling motor battery with a depth finder it would act up when i started troling had to put it on my cranking battery on my bass boat . my pontoon has 3 batteries . 1 cranking and 1 troling up frunt also have run my depth finder on it up frunt . one on back for consol and depth finder on consol .

[Bluegill Bill]

Well from what I'm hearing its best to leave the batteries seperate and just 2amp charge the trolling battery when it needs it, thanks for the input guys.
I gotta go hookup the charger.

"Shep"

[ShellCrappie]

Or just buy an optima and you want have to worry about any charging! lol