I R battery tender dumb!

[Kelso]

I have a 2013 242 LS, and have always pulled the batteries and wired them parallel and hooked a Battery Tender trickle charger/maintainer to them on my garage workbench. Prior we have kept the boat in a boat storage with no electricity, hence me pulling the batteries.

Now, last month I had our boat lift at our lake house reconfigured to fit and handle our boat. The dock has electricity. So alas, my question is can I and if so, how do I connect the Battery Tender to my batteries while they are in the boat wired up. And what position do my House and Start switches need to be in?

My Jeep and my truck have dual batteries in parallel and I've always just connected the Tender to one battery to maintain both, but these vehicles do not have the selector switches that the boat has.

Thank you for any input you may have. I suspect there is an easy answer, and I'm sorry if this is elementary as I just want to be safe.

 

[PaulyB]

If it is only a one bank charger (one set of leads coming from the battery tender) you would need to leave the battery switch on Both or combine so both batteries get charged....

 

[Bruce]

You may want to install a dual bank onboard charger. I use a small 5 amp per bank Guest charger and it does a great job of keeping the batteries charged.

Before I installed it I used a charger similar to what you have now. Having the onboard charger simplified things for me.

 

[Julian]

Yeah....I'd do just what Bruce said....install a dual bank onboard charger...and perhaps even a through hull connector. So when you cover the boat and have forgotten to plug in the batteries....its a no brainer to plug them in! Don't ask me how many times I did this and had to climb under the cover before I put a through hull plug in!!!! D'Oh!!!!

 

[Kelso]

In time I will install an onboard, but we are taking the boat out of town next weekend and it will stay in the water so I'd like to be able to use the Battery Tender I already have in the interim.

So it will work accordingly with both Start and House switches in the on position and the Tender leads connected to one of the batteries essentially charging them in parallel? Am I on the right track here?

 

[PaulyB]

In time I will install an onboard, but we are taking the boat out of town next weekend and it will stay in the water so I'd like to be able to use the Battery Tender I already have in the interim.

So it will work accordingly with both Start and House switches in the on position and the Tender leads connected to one of the batteries essentially charging them in parallel? Am I on the right track here?

That is correct.

 

[Kelso]

Thank you all for the prompt responses. I'm going to use my Battery Tender next weekend but in the meantime I'll give ChargerGuy a call and see what he recommends for onboard.

I love this place!

 

[Zeus2013]

How safe is it to use those type of tenders inside of a boat? I assume it is similar to this one...

http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-022-0165-DL-WH-12-Volt-Management/dp/B000NCOKV0

 

[Bruce]

Several brands of onboard 2 bank chargers have offerings around $100 some as low as $90.

This seems like a great deal for $50 http://m.ebay.com/itm/191030441169

 

[Kelso]

How safe is it to use those type of tenders inside of a boat? I assume it is similar to this one...

http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-022-0165-DL-WH-12-Volt-Management/dp/B000NCOKV0

I've used the Battery Tender line of maintainers for years now. I have 4 of them and use them on my truck, jeep, lawn mower, and 4-wheeler. My truck and Jeep both have dual batteries, and in the case of my Jeep I killed two expensive Optimas by never using the Jeep. So when I bought the new Optimas I got the battery tender and for 2-3 years now it has been on the Jeep. To give you an idea of how long the Jeep sits with the maintainer, I have not started the Jeep since last October.

This is the first time I've used it on my boat. I hooked it up this morning about 8:30am and went back by the storage at 4pm and it was still charging. I'll go by again Sunday when I get back in town to make sure it made it to float/maintain mode.

 

[Kelso]

Bruce, thanks for the link. My sis in laws dad offered me an onboard charger a few months ago for free so I'm waiting to see what it is and if it will work for me next weekend when I see him. He bought it to put in his Cobalt but the dealer messed up and put another one in and when he told them he'd provided one they didn't charge him for the one they installed.

 

[Geiger41]

I use the Minn-Kota 2 battery charger. Put it right next to my batteries, bolted it to the floor. The hooked up the + and - wires to the batteries. Ran the power cord to the side of the boat where I have an outlet cut through the side so I can simply plug into the side of the boat when I am at the dock.

 

[Dave Phipps]

Question I have a dual bank trickle charger that I have hooked up to my new 275SD with two batteries. Does it matter if I have the main 3 in boat batteries switches on or off??

 

[Bruce]

Question I have a dual bank trickle charger that I have hooked up to my new 275SD with two batteries. Does it matter if I have the main 3 in boat batteries switches on or off??

If the charger is connected directly to each battery the switch positions should not matter.

Do you not have an on board charger? I would hope dealers would be installing them on the 27 footers.

 

[Dave Phipps]

If the charger is connected directly to each battery the switch positions should not matter.

Do you not have an on board charger? I would hope dealers would be installing them on the 27 footers.

I don’t believe so but I have never had a boat this big or this new. I looked in the owners Manuel and it doesn’t say that it does. What would a on board charger look like?
I am asking all this as I have had the batteries on the trickle charger for a couple of weeks and I went to run the engines for about 3-5 minutes (ran water to them of course) and a fault display showed up
saying Stop Engine / Stop Steering Consult Dealership?? I am trying to make sure I didn’t mess something up when charging the batteries?
Thanks for your help!!

 

[Bruce]

@Dave Phipps, ideally you would have something like this and keep the boat plugged in between uses. https://a.co/d/3xY6aCZ

All batteries, switches and chargers are dealer installed on Yamahas so that equipment varies between boats.

 

[Yammi]

Hi Dave,

After market onboard chargers would the similar to these (and as Bruce mentioned above, you would keep it plugged in at the dock or between uses if trailering to keep the batteries fully charged and ready to go):
NOCO - 2-Bank 10A On-Board Battery Charger - GEN5X2
or

Mounted Marine Battery Chargers and Accessories | West Marine

Shop mounted marine battery chargers and accessories at West Marine. Offering single and multi-bank AC and DC chargers, we also offer cables and monitors.

www.westmarine.com

Not sure if the DVSR would do the same on your boat as it did on mine, but using an aftermarket onboard charger without a slight modification means that my smart charger would not work as designed.

https://jetboaters.net/threads/fsh-210-and-noco-5x2-charger.37059/

 

[Dave Phipps]

Thank you guys for your help!!