Charging 3d battery

jviss · Jul 29, 2012

Geoff K said:
This question a take off from wgkenny's post on echo charge. I use a trolling motor on my dinghy. Using a 50ah blue top Optima battery. Xantrax charger on boat has 3 outputs so no problem when at the marina. but there is a problem when anchoring in the islands for several days and going ashore frequently. I have a Balmar alternator and an echo for charging the start battery. Can I run a second pair of wires off the echo to charge my dinhgy battery? Do I need another echo? Is there an easy and inexpensive way?

Thanks

Geoff

My guess is that your dinghy battery is a deep-discharge battery, and that you need more than what the echo charger puts out to charge it properly. I would wire it to your house bank charging source directly, only when a charging source is present, e.g., engine. You could do this with an auto-combing relay, and a heavy cord (at least 10 gauge and less than 15') to the battery, if you leave it in the dink for charging - shorter, and heavier gauge is better.

onecoolair · Jul 29, 2012

Geoff K said:
This question a take off from wgkenny's post on echo charge. I use a trolling motor on my dinghy. Using a 50ah blue top Optima battery. Xantrax charger on boat has 3 outputs so no problem when at the marina. but there is a problem when anchoring in the islands for several days and going ashore frequently. I have a Balmar alternator and an echo for charging the start battery. Can I run a second pair of wires off the echo to charge my dinhgy battery? Do I need another echo? Is there an easy and inexpensive way?

Thanks

Geoff

I use a flexable 5 watt solar panel that I bought 15 years a go. Just lay it across the pontoon of dingy were I won't be sitting. Held in place with bugee. Can shift it around as needed. If battery needs to come out of dingy then I can take avantage of the engine for charge or Gen. with jumper cables. (KISS) Of course one could make things more complicated? Well maybe not?? A dedicated location for storing battery in cockpit locker with a dedicated secure connection to echo charger. Hmmm? Sounds like another project to add to the do list.

onecoolair · Jul 30, 2012

Geoff K said:
Good thoughts. jviss, You're right, it's a deep discharge battery and the echo puts out only 15 amps. However, do I need a combiner if I only hook up the battery when charging? Isn't its purpose to prevent reverse flow from actually drawing down the battery that needs charging? onecoolair, I like the simplicity of your solution. Does the solar panel require a charge regulator? I usually take the battery out of the dinghy when sailing. I have not yet developed a way to tie it down (on the to do list) and don't like the thought of dumping it if the dinghy flips.

Geoff

Geoff...The optima can operate on its side. But to keep it secure I just use a simple bugee cord setup while its in dingy. 5watt solar does not need a controller but it does have a reversing diode. I have a 18 watt mounted on the davits that is on a controller though. I somestimes tie the extra 5 watt into the main solar controller thru a extra connection under the arch. Just throw the 5 watt up on top of bimmini holding it down with bugee and plug it in. Nothing fancy. 5 watt gets stored away when not needed. When needing to charge off engine I would go with the echo set up for charging the extra trolling battery. I believe a dedicated storage location in cockpit locker is the best way to go for this extra trolling motor battery and to charge it off engine. I would go with a second echo charger. Now this echo could be set to run off house banks or engine alt. Right now I use a echo to charge the starting battery for the yanmar. It runs off the engine alt thru a isolator. This lets the engine alt read and regulate the charge to the house banks. It works great.

Maine Sail · Jul 30, 2012

Geoff K said:
This question a take off from wgkenny's post on echo charge. I use a trolling motor on my dinghy. Using a 50ah blue top Optima battery. Xantrax charger on boat has 3 outputs so no problem when at the marina. but there is a problem when anchoring in the islands for several days and going ashore frequently. I have a Balmar alternator and an echo for charging the start battery. Can I run a second pair of wires off the echo to charge my dinhgy battery? Do I need another echo? Is there an easy and inexpensive way?

Thanks

Geoff

An Echo will work great for a starting battery that never has an amp hour or two removed but would not be my first choice for a deeply discharged battery. I would not even recommend a Duo charge because they will lock out at 30A usually will not self re-set. Hard wiring or an ACR may be the best bet..