Solar Charger for Trolling Battery

[MelodyBay]

Hello,

Could anyone recommend a good solar panel charger for my trolling motor's battery? I'm in the market for one since I don't have the option to plug my charger into an A/C outlet.

Thanks!

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Solar Charger for Trolling Battery

A solar charger will not charge a run down deepcylce battery (or any type for that matter), at least not a solar panel you could afford to buy or mount on the boat.

It may help keep a battery not being used charged, but that would be the best you could expect.

 

[MelodyBay]

Re: Solar Charger for Trolling Battery

I was afraid of that. Looks like my option is to remove the battery and haul it up to the cottage to charge it.

 

[Surfer Dave]

Re: Solar Charger for Trolling Battery

a solar panel will not charge a deep cycle battery, to get one that will you will need a ton of money and a huge boat.

 

[tschmidty]

Re: Solar Charger for Trolling Battery

Shoot, had a long reply typed and my browser crashed. Bottom line, if you only expect 7-10 hours of max speed out of your trolling motor a week a 50 watt panel and controller would work. 50 watt panel is $200-250, and a basic charge controller is $50. Morningstar makes good inexpensive controllers and there are any number of panels, google search for 50 watt solar panel. PM if you want more detailed info.

 

[H20Rat]

Re: Solar Charger for Trolling Battery

Shoot, had a long reply typed and my browser crashed. Bottom line, if you only expect 7-10 hours of max speed out of your trolling motor a week a 50 watt panel and controller would work. 50 watt panel is $200-250, and a basic charge controller is $50. Morningstar makes good inexpensive controllers and there are any number of panels, google search for 50 watt solar panel. PM if you want more detailed info.

To go along with that, for minimal usage you can get by with a 50 watt panel in good weather. if you want a 24 hour charge on a dead deep cycle, you are in for about $2000.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Solar Charger for Trolling Battery

A 50W panel is going to put out around 2.5Amps max with the solar panel angled perfectly. You might get 12Amp Hours a day so if you run down your battery 48 AmpHours, it will take you 4 days to recover.

 

[tschmidty]

Re: Solar Charger for Trolling Battery

Yeah, as a given if you run your battery dead, stick it on a real charger! You want about a 10 amp fast charge for a dead battery. You could probably get to that for $1000 but just take the battery out and cart it up to your cabin and plug it into a $50 charger there...

But as far as usage it's all about the math. A 30# motor draws about 10-15 amps, let's call it 15. A 50watt panel will give you 4amps maximum for about 5-10 hours a day depending on where you are, weather, etc. So let's say 4 amps for 5 hours average.

30# motor running full speed for 2 hours = 30 amp/hours
50 watt panel, 4amps for 5 hours = 20 amp/hours.

So you could run it for 2 hours every other day and recharge your battery with a cushion of 10 amp/hours. Which you wold need since you would probably be out fishing part of the day, right?

So it all depends on your needs whether it's worth it.

 

[nightowl66]

Re: Solar Charger for Trolling Battery

I just bought one of these to charge my trolling battery off of my motor charging system.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...indexId=cat600056&hasJS=true&_requestid=51376

 

[H20Rat]

Re: Solar Charger for Trolling Battery

I just bought one of these to charge my trolling battery off of my motor charging system.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...indexId=cat600056&hasJS=true&_requestid=51376

always a good idea to check how much power your main motor puts out. Older 2 strokes are very low, barely enough to power minimal accessories and keep the main battery charged. (10-15 amps max output is common, and thats at fairly high RPM)

some 4 strokes have 50+ amp alternators though.

 

[JAY 22]

Re: Solar Charger for Trolling Battery

Go to bass pro .com they got one for $99.99 it's the sunsei se-500 charger

 

[MelodyBay]

Re: Solar Charger for Trolling Battery

After all of the great advice that I received in this forum I decided to disconnect the battery and carry it up to the cottage to charge it. Wasn't that bad or big a deal to do it.

Also, my neighbor bought a solar power charger for the same purpose....it didn't work and he now does the same.

Thanks everyone.