charging the boat battery(s) while driving to the launch

My present storage situation doesn't have any 110 volt hookups. Well, there is one, but for me to use it..would require leaving my boat in the parking lot from 7 pm until 7 am in the morning. Not the worst thing, but....

Today, I knew I was going to drive one hour to a new launch. My trolling motor battery was about 2\3 rds full. I wanted to top it off before the launch.

Last year, for a model airplane project, I bought a 500 watt inverter. Cost about $45.00 or so.

My van has a cigarette lighter near the rear hatch. Plugged the inverter into the cigarette lighter. Plugged an extension cord into the inverter. Ran the extension cord out under the hatch and to the boat.

Dropped my charger next to the battery. Plugged the charger into the extension cord. Clipped on the charging leads.
Viola!!!......fully charged battery when I arrived.

richg99

=D> 8)

Huh???????

richg99

good job young man - good job.



I woulda went and put $150 into a spare battery so I could rotate them.

oh, next time, I would suggest putting some kind of rubber bands or tape or
something to hold the charging clips SECURELY on the battery terminals.
If one comes loose during the drive time, oh no, you gotta sit and run the
van until it charges.




good job

Thanks, but........Ha Ha.,...I don't think that the "young man" monicker fits a 74 yr. old fisherman.

Good suggestion re rubber banding the clips. If they pulled off, while underway, I'd have some hot leads bouncing around.

regards, richg99

Good ideas.

If you've got a 7-way plug on your hitch, you could hook your battery up to the charging system on your truck. Same way that they do with camper batteries. Swap out your light plugs with a 7-way and run an extra set of +/- 10 ga wires down your trailer to hook into your battery. It will charge nicely via your truck.

Another use for the inverter that I found was working on the boat. I can either plug the inverter into the car, or, even more simply, clip the power leads onto a battery in the boat..

Now I can use my dremel, power drill and other tools at the boat. Before, I had to haul the boat home and work on my driveway.

Re picking up the power directly. Probably work just fine.

I already owned the inverter. Now that I can use my power tools on the boat, I feel even better about the rig.

Now that I can use my power tools on the boat...

Click to expand...

One could bring along a sawzall to help fillet the really big fish!

Cheers,

Scott

Don't know about a sawzall. Heavy grinder was too much. Regular power hand drill and a dremel worked fine.

Real men of genius! Love it!

Thats thinking "outside of the box" good job rich =D>

Lots of comments on the TX site talked about just connecting the wires directly from the cigarette lighter directly to the battery.

Hmmmmmmmmm straight from the cig lighter to the battery ?? WHY NOT ??
As long as you get the POLARITY correct, you would have at least 13v to the battery !!!!
wow that right there is a good piece of info !!!

Not a boat, but where I work we have a 550 gallon fuel cart that has two 15 gpm pumps powered by a 12 volt battery. We pull it behind a tug/tractor. It has an onboard battery and charger but the battery can not hold up long enough to empty the cart. I have run a heavy 2-gauge cable like you would find on a set of jumper cables to the rear of the tug and a heavy cable from the battery on the cart to the tongue of the cart. Then I have a connector to plug them together with the connector on the tug mounted firmly to the tug so if they inadvertently drive off without disconnecting the cable it will disconnect without any damage. When we pull the cart now the alternator keeps both the tug and the cart batteries charged enough to empty the cart without having to come back to recharge the battery in the cart. We have been running it this way for about 5 years now. Works like a dream.