On Board Battery Charger Question

[noochie35]

I have a battery charger on my boat that is not charging my trolling motor batteries. I am thinking that it may be hooked up wrong. does it have to be the first connection to the battery? Any thoughts or help would be appreciated.

[mattplapp]

Check the levels of your batteries. The on board chargers will only charge batteries at certain levels or higher. Your battery may be too low and require charging on a car charger to get it to a high enough level.

Matt Plapp

[FISH2MUCH]

my on board charger is doing the same thing,i wander if anyone repairs them. it will charge on one bank on another bank it says the battery is charged after only five minutes. the third bank flashes. the batterys are good i just charge them with my car charger. it takes about 12 hours per battery and they last a long time, but its alot easier just using my on board charger when it worked.

[DaveR]

Hooking up the battery charger terminals in any order is fine as long as they are tight. If you have a straight 24 volt system (jumpered at the trolling motor receptacle) make sure you disconnect yor trolling motor plug otherwise it is (possible) that strange return path in the charger could be created.
Best thing I can recommend is to get a volt meter and check the terminal voltage of your batteries before and during charging. Thats how I discovered my charger went belly up. A very cheap but functional digital volt meter can be bought at Harbor Frieght Tools (its made in china :-( , but some folks dont/can't fork out 50+ bucks for a better one). As Matt said, most electronic battery chargers will not turn on if the battery is too low, has a bad cell or shorted cell, or has reversed connections.

[noochie35]

Thank you all for your help. It is greatly appreciated.

[Danny]

I've heard a lot of people mentione unplugging the trolling motor when charging your batteries. I used to do this myself. Now I just turn the power switch off, both the toggle switch and the reostat. I have to do this, as I have had the plug removed, and have the TM straight wired now. I did this because so often we all get water over our bows when we are fishing main lakes and the big rollers come from the yachts. I had some corrosion on the plug, and was cleaning it, and my dealer suggested letting him direct wire it.. or I should say my mechanic. He said it wouldn't hurt anything. And, so far, three years later, it still is no problem.

Hope you find your solution.

Danny

[OldRanger]

Listen to Matt Plapp. Oddly, some onboard chargers will not, I repeat, will not charge a dead battery. Touch the terminals with a regular charger and the on board charger will fire up.