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| Only going to get one toy for da boat this off-season and it will be a bow sonar. I have a charger beit a clamp on portable. I am going to close off the area with a carpeted plywood in the bow where the battery sits. I will install a male/female quick disconnect plugs for the PD55. Can I use a 2nd male plug to charge the battery, using my current portable Vector charger? Like laying the wires from the male plug between the clamps? I could cut off those clamps, and wire in the male plug, and then be set. But I would like to keep that charger available for auto usage in the future. Would this method work, maybe splicing in extra wires along side the clamps to wire the male plug to?? Thanks in advance. |
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Posts: 3508
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | I used that same idea with an older boat of mine, although I did not cut off the clamps on the charger...i just made sure that the clamps were not touching. Then I plugged directly into my trolling motor plug-in and it worked just fine.
As with anything, there are always some risk involved, and one that could potentially happen here is too much current going through wire that is not heavy enough to handle the load. so...it is something to consider when "jury-rigging" certain items. If your wires are pretty small, it might not be a bad idea to change out the wiring just to be safe.
If you are going no more than 15 amps for charging (plenty for a trolling motor battery which likes a slow charge) I would bet the wiring is heavy enough.
Should work fine
Steve |
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| The reason I asked that was earlier in the year a salesman at the local Lund dealer said if I installed that plug setup I could charge the battery using it too. I have some 6 or 8 gauge lying around that i could use. I figure next season I will be putting in an onboard system. Thanks. |
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| VMS-would this idea work with all plugs or just the high end stuff?? THanks. |
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Posts: 32939
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I use the Marinco plug in and a regular 12 volt charger. The Marinco red plug is just 12, the black can be wireed for 12 or 24. |
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Posts: 3508
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Should work with all plugs... In any case, you are only pushing a max of 15 amps or so on the charger, so it is not much current running through the line. I did it with a simple 2-prong plug that I ran with (can you believe this) heavy duty speaker wire (it was really thick stuff...like 6 gauge or so) to my battery. That was on my old 14 footer that I retrofitted with a front deck and a minnkota powerdrive. Worked just fine and didn't get hot at all...
Steve |
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Posts: 956
Location: Home of the 2016 World Series Champion Cubs | Ive been doing this for years without incident. Here's a tip: Cut the clips with about 6-8" of wire off of your charger. On the end of wire attached to the charger attach the male half of the connector. On the clip/wire piece attach the female half of the connector. When you want to charge through pd55 wiring just use your charger minus the clips. When Charging another battery, attach the clips via the male/female connector bacl on to your charger then clip directly to the battery posts/terminals.
Karl |
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| I looked at some individual plugs, male and female at WallyWorld the other day. They are sold separately, which is nice. I believe they are sold under the Attwood name. Simple plug in's. Marinco female and male plug are up there $$$ where I may as well wait and get the onboard charger. Thanks for the tips. Spring is just around the corner.  |
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