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Posts: 214
Location: Central Iowa | Anyone have any experience with the Cabelas battery chargers? I'm kind of confused on exactly what size charger I need also, I have a 24v trolling motor system and I'll have at least one depthfinder hooked up to it. Am I better off powering my depthfinders off of the cranking battery? Any recommendations on size of charger? Will 6amps per bank be enough for a weekend warrior and a week long trip every now and then? |
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Posts: 405
| On my boat I went with the 3 bank battery charger to charge all 3 of my trolling motor batteries along with 2 depth finders I think that you would be fine with a 2 bank if you have 2 batteries bass pro has the minn kotas on sale I believe theres my 2 cents good luck |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | If it was me, I would not power anything off the cranking battery. Best reason I can come up with is "Ya just never know..." I'd rather have a trolling battery die on the water than a cranker.
I'm looking at similar chargers, I think the 6 amp charge will work for me, and I'm comparing the Cabelas charger with the Bass Pro brand that is now on sale for $20 cheaper. I also use a 12/24 system. If you have more questions, both Cabelas and BPS have product specialists you can reach thru the ordering people. good shopping, m |
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Location: Minneapolis, MN | 6amps can be frustrating if you fish late at night and want to get back out again early in the morning. It may not be enough to charge it full in that situation. Charging Systems International (CSI) makers of the Dual Pro brand have a 20 amp model now. |
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| rule of thumb, but the largest rating you can afford
i have a MK330 (3 banks of 10) in both my boats.
i run the frong finder off the batteries for the TM which are also up front.
i run the aerator, lights and everything else off the cranker, but my crankers charge while running.
my buddy worries about the finders being on the cranker and all kinds of other goofy stuff....i havent had a problem yet.
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Posts: 5874
| I'd recommend a 10 Amp charger per bank. You want your batteries at 100% when you start out in the morning after a draining them the day before. Nothing worse than running out of power on the water. Also, I run 2 depth finders, my marine radio, Stereo, and livewell off my cranking battery. No problems in 5 years on this boat. The one time I did have a low cranking battery, I forgot to plug it in the last trip out. I just jumpered a TM battery and we were good to go. I keep a smal set of jumpers in the boat, just in case. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | I just picked up a Pro Mariner 150, it is 15 amps total but what it does is automatically put the amps on the batteries needed..so when the starting battery is topped off, all 15 amps go into the other 2...One of my buddies is on their pro staff and told me not one of the other pro staffers went with the 300 size as the tech. in the Pro Mariners was far better than the competition...also, Pro Mariners have a LIFETIME replacement warranty....noone else has that....
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| Up untill now it has always been a no-no to run your graphs off of your trolling motor batteries. Running the motor and graph at the same time would cause interference and give false readings on the graph. Did I miss something and this has changed?
Besides, as long as yopu have a good battery and the charging system on your gas motor works the way it should, you won't have any problems. Depending on how big your gas motor is and how much it draws at start-up, you can get a dual purpous starting / deepcycle battery. |
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| Was also told not to run the depthfinders, radio/marine radio, etc off the TM batteries. Been running mine off the cranking battery and have never had a problem running out of juice. I two sonars and the radio all day long and into the night and have never run out. |
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Posts: 69
Location: oak lawn IL | i'm just curious --for the guys that run 10 amp or more chargers --how often do you have to replace your batteries? |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | Brad, thanks so much for the recommendation on the Pro Mariners. I've been shopping for a good charger and ordered one of their units based a lot on your post. And, the one I wanted is presently on sale at BPS. Should work out great, thanks again, m |
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Posts: 2037
Location: lansing, il | i got that pro mariner 5/5/5 that brad helped me find yesterday, after reading the book on it, this is definetly the way to go!!!! especaily in my case, with the distribute on demand technology it puts most of the amps where they need to be. mikie the bps models are made by pro mariner just so you know! |
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Posts: 214
Location: Central Iowa | The Cabelas chargers are also made by Pro Mariner. |
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Location: Minnesota | A couple years ago i wrote an article for a magazine regarding on-board chargers. To back it up we did a field test on 4 boats equiped with 4 different brands. All had the same batteries. Those of you who thing 6 or less amps with suffice i hope you have long jumper cables. The brands were cabelas, minnkota, guest and dual-pro. All chargers did what they said they would up front. However there were a couple of features and company service items that made a couple stand wwwaaaaayyy out front of the others. Features Dual-Pro has a true 10 amps per channel and shuts off when the batteries are fully charged, nice LED charge indicators and a great remote indicator for wehen the charger gets buried in the bilge. (thats the one I bought and it stays plugged in all year round). Minnkota nice features like charge lights, automatic temperature compensation. All had reverse connection and ignition protection, all claimed to be waterproof only dual-pro and minnkota gaurenteed this. |
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