Re: Battery wiring
There is no free lunch when it comes to electricity. Your engine outputs 10A which is barely enough to keep the starting battery fully charged and to run any other accessories. Now you want to charge a deep cycle battery that will be deeply discharged by the trolling motor. The average trolling motor draws 46 amps or so every hour it is run. So running it for as little as one hour will draw in excess of 20 amps if run at half speed. More if it is an older motor. So do the math. You would need to run the boat wide open for over two hours (20 amps divided by 10 amp output = 2) to get the battery anywhere near fully charged. That number would also need to be increased because the starting battery also needs charging. See where I'm going with this? You simply don't have enough alternator output to accomplish what you want to do. Removing the battery and charging at home is the only option unless you have access to AC power at the storage facility. If you do, install an on-board charger, plug it in and forget it until next use. These are automatic chargers and are your batteries friend. A dual output can be attached to the starting battery as well so you will be assured both batteries are up to snuff when you want to use the boat.
