Battery Charging

[DewNut]

First post... long time lurker... GREAT SITE!

Good news: I found a storage unit near the lake to store the boat for cheap (I have no parking at my place), however there is no power at the storage place. Short of pulling the batteries everytime and taking them home with me to charge, does anyone have any good ideas on how to charge them? I thought about using the 7-pin trailer hook up to run a 12v power lead, thought about solar chargers, thought about a small gas generator... not sure what would work best...

Many thanks in advance!

 

[redbug]

I used a Honda generator to power my 3 bank on board charger
the .6 gallon gas tank would run for 8 hours and charge mu batteries
i would charge them when i got back from a trip then pick the boat up the night before my next trip and top them
off at home
they didnt need topped off if i remembered to use my master switch to shut everything off

 

[vanbc]

why not go Solar. That way you can leave it on while in storage.

 

[justnortherns]

why not go Solar. That way you can leave it on while in storage.

Careful with the solar route, you'll need consistently excellent solar conditions for this to have a chance to work. If you tend to use your batteries a lot while boating it will take a long time to recharge them via solar (in days, not hours). However, if your battery use is minimal and you primarily want to maintenance charge the batteries, solar might work.

Solar is elegant but , when I go boating, I am ready to relax on the lake. I don't want to worry that there have been several cloudy days recently and so I might not have enough charge on the batteries (which would be far away from you in this case, and so you won't be able to check their actual capacity). I think solar would be better suited for secondary charging.

 

[TNtroller]

seems like a small gas generator would work, but will you have to stay with the generator while its running to charge the batts, or could/would you leave it running ??

 

[redbug]

i left mine running never had an issue of course i stored my boat on a naval base