dual battery connects

[scoremaster]

have a question if i would add a 2nd trolling batt to the one already instaled in the boat would you go with a equal size battery and since it is a 12 volt trolling motor that would be hooked up pos to pos and neg to neg that would keep me at the 12 volts correct .

what is the result of that,, a longer trolling time ?
and if i would happen to buy a on board charger would i still have to get a 3 stage 1 for starting and 1 each for the trolling batteries .

thanks,
Scott

[DTG]

Yea they work like that. You dont have to change the battery in the middle of the day. We have 2 bank charger one for the two in parrallel and one for starting battery.

[Barnacle Bill]

Yes to all your questions. But i would go with a 3 bank charger, especially if you need the TM batteries recharged over night. Plus if you ever decided to go to a 24V TM you wouldn't have to buy a new charger. A smart charger with 5 or 6 amps on each leg would work just fine.

[pstone]

I got mine hooked up the same way. It won't charge it fast, but no $=a 2 bank instead of 3....

Yea they work like that. You dont have to change the battery in the middle of the day. We have 2 bank charger one for the two in parrallel and one for starting battery.

[Barnacle Bill]

Think of batteries like a gas tank. You can only put so much in and you can only take so much out. If you double the size if the tank it will take twice as long to fill but will last twice as long.

[CatFan]

You always want to go with batteries as close to identical as possible when connecting them, and make sure both are fully charged before you connect them together. Otherwise, one battery will carry more of the load, and you can end up with one battery trying to charge the other.

[poppop]

can you just leave them connected together...and hook the charger to one battery and it would charge both? Or would you have to disconnect and charge each one seperately?

[gabowman]

Unless you're running a motor that doesnt charge it's own battery I'd think a 2 bank charger would do ya. 3 banks would be nice but more expensive.

can you just leave them connected together...and hook the charger to one battery and it would charge both? Or would you have to disconnect and charge each one seperately?

I dont know if leaving them connected would hurt anything but I'd disconnect before charging. Batteries aint cheap and I'd hate to be putting too much load into one battery and never getting the other fully charged up beofre using them again (such as an overnight charge).

[CatFan]

can you just leave them connected together...and hook the charger to one battery and it would charge both? Or would you have to disconnect and charge each one seperately?

Leave them together. That way you know they never get to a different state of charger. You can still use two banks from a charger on them and be fine. It would charge with one charger, but it will be slower. Go with at least 10A total on the batteries, either from one or two charger banks.

[poppop]

thanks for the info.....