Best Place to Mount On Board Battery Charger?

Post by **Fish'n Technish'n** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 3:51 pm

Okay, the weather is nice now & I got itchy to get the boat out from under wraps!!Feels Great!

Question, I now have the onboard battery charger but I am torn on where to mount it. Do I put it under the dash on Driver's side/Passenger side? Or do I mount it under the floor near the Trolling motor battery? I know they generate a fair bit of heat, so I am kind of relectant to mount it under the floor on the bow. Or do I mount it out in the open so I can see what it is doing.....hopefully charging!??

Anyone got some ideas/suggestions ? Thanks,

FT

Post by JP » Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:28 am

Mount the charger by the battery(s). It will be out of your way and easily accessable. The chargers do throw off heat but not enough to do any damage. If you look at where all the boat companies mount their chargers in small compartment spaces with no issues.

JP

Post by **Musky Angler** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:48 pm

I picked one up this season as well. I am also torn as to where it will be mounted. The instructions state that placing the Minn Kota Charger in the vicinity of the battery can cause explosion issue; for some reason I am thinking that this is not good. Anyways, I may be looking at mounting it above and away from the battery which is below the bow flooring.

Post by **beachburger** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:21 pm

You can only mount the charger as far away from the battery as the cables allow and the Minn Kota cables are not all that long.....

Anyways, I may be looking at mounting it above and away from the battery which is below the bow flooring.

I have yet to see a boat with a deck where the on-board charger was not mounted under the deck. Just leave the battery hatch open when charging. This is plenty of ventilation.

HTH,
Doug

Post by **1lastcast** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 9:00 pm

I placed my 2 bank minkota charger at the reat of the boat in the same compartment as the starting battery. Easy to get at the cord and plug in in while standing outside of the boat. I ran the 2nd bank wire to the bow compartment where my trolling motor battery is located.

Post by **Mr.J.** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 6:05 am

Place the charger as close to the battery as you can.

I'll be installing one too and will use it to charge my crank and trolling battery.

Since the crank will require little to no charging time I will put the on board right with the deep cycle, which will, after a full day of fishing, require more of the chargers time and effort.

My trolling battery is right under the bow deck and of course my crank is in the stern. I'll be running wires from the bow to the stern and will be using the existing wires for the deep cycle battery.

It's best to keep the charger close to the battery it will be charging the longest/most. Keep the hatch open and heat shouldn't be a problem. Put your charger on your batteries before you install and feel for how much heat it throws off, I bet it won't be much.

Keep us posted.

Post by **Jale** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 6:42 am

It'll be fine in the battery compartment...if you have any worries about heat, just leave the hatch open...has worked for me for years.

Joe