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Most trolling batteries ,27/31 group,should be charged at 10-15 amps, not 2 amp trickle,

Not charged, but maintained once it is fully charged. I read that a battery loses about 1% of its charge per day.

Hit the batteries with a minimum 10 amp charge when you first get home.
A good charger, like the Minn Kota 3 bank or Noco Genius 3 bank, load up the batteries then go to float mode similar to a trickle charger, to just maintain after the first big charge up. Don't skimp on a charger or you'll be spending many dollars more often changing batteries. Do yourself a favour and set a routine maintenance scheduleprogram. First of every month, check batteries, fluid levels, tire pressures.

Raminator wrote:Most trolling batteries ,27/31 group,should be charged at 10-15 amps, not 2 amp trickle,

this is the first time I have ever heard that. Would be a pretty big solar system to have it charge at 10-15 amps. I thought deep cycle batteries were designed to be slow charged and slow drawn.

Anybody else hear that they should be charged at 10-15 amps
seems fishy to me

I don't think I have ever heard that specifically but I do not beleive it hurts anything otherwise we wouldn't have the minn kota 345 smart chargers. Trickle charging at 2 amps would take forever so I wouldn't even think of it for my Boat batteries.

I do not beleive there is a limit to how fast or slow you charge a battery (2 amps vs 15 amps) provided you are using the right charger to do it. In you other post about your batteries dying, I commented on the fact that you may not be charging them long enough @ 2 amps. A 15 amp charger would just get the job done quicker provided it was set up to handle deep cycle batteries which the MinnKota chargers are.

In the end, I beleive it all comes down to the charger. I run a MK330 (3 bank 10 amps per bank) with no issues whatsoever and my cranking battery is over 7 years old (it is being replaced at the beginning of next seeason to be safe).

I was always told that if you charge a deep cycle to fast it will cook the plates, that is one of the reasons why we don't hook them to our main motor

Honestly,

I haven't a clue about hooking up a deep cycle to motor but I can provide what I have read off if minnkota's website is the following.


For use with 12 volt system with 12V / 6-cell batteries that are Flooded lead acid, Maintenance Free, Starved Electrolyte (AGM/HP AGM) or Gel only (60-180 amp hour rating)


I know that some of the older chargers had a battery type selector but the newer ones all seem to be good for all types. Like I have said befor, I have an mk330 and I just hook it up after every trip out and unplug it the next day.

I don't want to steal this thread. But I'm pretty sure you are supposed. To give deep cell batteries a long slow charge. I would never charge it at 10

bostonwhaler wrote:I was always told that if you charge a deep cycle to fast it will cook the plates, that is one of the reasons why we don't hook them to our main motor

Actually http://www.StaynCharge.com , hooks up all your batteries to the main motor or even your tow vehicle