Battery charger question

I have been in the market for a battery charger for the two optima batteries I have on my pontoon boat. I found a Pro Charging Systems dual pro PS2 2 bank charger on Craigslist for $ 50 bucks. Picked it up this morning. Thing looks almost new and it seems to be in great shape. I don't know much about these type chargers and have two questions. I'm running a 12 volt system with both batteries wired up parallel. Do I need to unhook the batteries from each other in order to charge them correctly or just wire up the charger to each individual battery and leave the batteries connected? How good and how reliable are these chargers? Thanks, Fred

Be sure your charger is designed to charge the optima batterys. Leave both batterys connected together.....connect a charger bank up to each battery.

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Thanks G..... My old Schumacher charger would shut off showing full charge and the test button on my tm would show only 2 bars. When I hooked this new charger up and turned it on it only had 1 light on on either bank. After four hours both Banks are flashing green. The tm test says full charge.

#1 you got a heck of a deal on one of the best chargers made
#2 you can do it one of 2 ways. You can hook each side to each battery seperatly and leave your jumper in place.
#3 you can hook one leg to one trolling battery and leave jumper in place and still charge both batteries and hook the other leg to cranking battery. Depending on amp out put will determine how long it takes 1 leg to charge both batteries.

#3 is how I have my 2 bank 5 amp per bank set up on my 12 volt system with 2 batteries for trolling. Never had a problem charging both overnight except 1 time in 5 years.

I would like to be able to use # 3, except my cranking battery is about 20 ft. From the charger and trolling batteries. What gauge wire would I need to run to connect the cranking battery? By the way this charger is 15a per bank

Man hope you walked away backwards, heck of a deal. Go to tip of wire and clip off ring eye. Splice in some good multi strand 10 gauge wire and put new ring eyes on. Some chargers have temp sensor in wire between charger and fuse. You don't want to mess with that. Adding extension won't hurt anything done that way. Make sure you solder your connections and heat shrink.

with that charger I would remove the jumper between the batteries and charge them separate !!! if you charged connected that would be charging them at 30 amps I don't think they could handle that !!!

being wired parallel you actually have 1 big battery bank !!!

Yeah Cray, guess I got lucky on this one. My cables do have the fuses inline. I feel sure that 15a is enough to charge my trolling batteries overnight so I'm gonna do as you suggest and wire up bank 2 to the starting battery.

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Originally Posted by deltabull

Yeah Cray, guess I got lucky on this one. My cables do have the fuses inline. I feel sure that 15a is enough to charge my trolling batteries overnight so I'm gonna do as you suggest and wire up bank 2 to the starting battery.

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Run into anything just pm me.

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Originally Posted by deltabull

Yeah Cray, guess I got lucky on this one. My cables do have the fuses inline. I feel sure that 15a is enough to charge my trolling batteries overnight so I'm gonna do as you suggest and wire up bank 2 to the starting battery.

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here is the way they suggest to wire one charger to two batteries parallel !!! hook neg lead of charger to the neg post on battery a and the pos lead of charger to pos post on battery b that way you are charging them as one big battery pack !!! hope this helps !!!
here is a few link worth looking at !!!
http://www.gearseds.com/files/twobat_onechgr2.pdf
Connecting Batteries & Chargers In Series & Parallel | Deltran Battery Tender

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Sounds like you stole a great charger. 15a per Bank for 50 bucks is a swipe.

If you extend the leads 20’ to the cranker, make sure you use oxygen free multi stranded wire like on good jumper cables. The oxygen free wire has much less resistance than other type wire so it carries the current better without slowing down the charge time as bad with the resistance of the wire.

If you charge both trolling batteties with one bank it will take twice the time to charge them both but 15a should give you plenty to get it done over night. The diagram above is spot on.


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Where would I get this oxygen free 10 gauge wire? Would speaker wire do? Found lots of oxygen free 10 gauge speaker wire on eBay...

One thing to check if your start battery is not AGM. My charger is either or but not both. Nother words it will charge two of same kind. Mine had a setting to select AGM or Wet Cell.

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Originally Posted by deltabull

Where would I get this oxygen free 10 gauge wire? Would speaker wire do? Found lots of oxygen free 10 gauge speaker wire on eBay...

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I would use 6 gauge strained wire for the wire at that length !!! and you can get it at a Lowes or HomeDepot !!! hope this helps !!! 10 gauge wire would get a little warm at length !!!

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Originally Posted by deltabull

Where would I get this oxygen free 10 gauge wire? Would speaker wire do? Found lots of oxygen free 10 gauge speaker wire on eBay...

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Car audio shops. Most amplifier install kits have the right wire.


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Originally Posted by strmwalker

I would use 6 gauge strained wire for the wire at that length !!! and you can get it at a Lowes or HomeDepot !!! hope this helps !!! 10 gauge wire would get a little warm at length !!!

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PLEASE IGNORE THIS POST !!!

10 gauge wire would be fine for charger !!! I was thinking trolling motor cable to battery !!!! my bad !!!

I'll be charging two optima batteries parallel with one bank and one wet cell group 29 dual purpose with the other bank. My charger doesn't have any settings...

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Originally Posted by deltabull

I'll be charging two optima batteries parallel with one bank and one wet cell group 29 dual purpose with the other bank. My charger doesn't have any settings...

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It will work fine. AGM takes a little higher voltageto charge than lead acid. Most chargers are set at the lower voltage and switching ups that voltage. That charger is already set at the higher voltage and it won't hurt your lead acid battery.

Thanks Cray