Thread: trolling battery question

Was considering adding a second trolling battery in parallel for this summer. I am planning to try pulling cranks. In theory, this should double my endurance, correct? Other question regards my charger. I currently have a 2 bank charger wired to a single cranking battery and a single tm battery. If I have a pair of batteries in parallel, and they are wired to tm only, can this still be considered a single "bank", or do I need to also upgrade to a triple bank charger for this setup? ORRRRRR..... am I just making things complicated, and should stick to what I have?

Get ready to upgrade to a 3 bank charger, a two will work but will take longer to recharge. Dual batteries should at least increase your trolling/running time by at least 1/3 to 1/2 more time.

As long as the batteries are ran in parallel, a single bank of your charger will charge them. You should just about double your run time with two. For the best results, make sure your two batteries are the same size and age. They are only as good as your weakest battery.

Originally Posted by speck

for the best results, make sure your two batteries are the same size and age. They are only as good as your weakest battery.

x2

I also found a real good pdf file on this here the link,
http://www.gearseds.com/files/twobat_onechgr2.pdf

Will still take longer to charge with a 2 bank vs. a 3 bank.

Originally Posted by satdoc1

Will still take longer to charge with a 2 bank vs. a 3 bank.

exactly right....for example if your charger is say 6 amps per bank.....then charging two batterys with one bank will be like charging one with a 3 amp charger.....in other words it will take twice as long to charge them

Originally Posted by satdoc1

Will still take longer to charge with a 2 bank vs. a 3 bank.

if you use a 2 bank charger you can charge the starting battery and the trolling batteries,you would hook the charger to the trolling batteries as followed battery A pos to charger pos and battery B to neg of charger, this is with the batteries wired parallel the charger looks at them as 1 big 12volt battery in this configuration...if you use a 3 bank charger you will have to disconnect the batteries parallel wiring in order to charge the 2 batteries, its not like a 24 volt system where you can hook both batteries to 2 separate charger leads!!!!and the charge time is not that much longer I have used this type of configuration for years until I went to a 24 volt system!!!

IWF if your charger is like mine it is a 2 bank hooked to cranking on one leg and the other leg is hooked to 2 12's like you are talking about. It senses the amount of charge on each bank. If in most cases the cranking battery needs little if any charge the extra is then routed to the one needing charge. So if your charger is a dual 6 it would put 6 to each bank until the cranking battery is charged then it would shift part of the amps from cranking side to trolling side when cranking is fully charged all the amps for both banks would be directed to trolling batteries. With my Terrova I have never had a problem recharging overnight. My charger is a ProMariner 6/6