On board 36v single bank charger???

[REW]

Does any one know of an on board single bank 36 volt charger for marine use.

It is very easy to take all three of your batteries; ie. the two 12 volt trolling motor batteries, the one 12 volt starter battery - hook them in series and use a single bank 36 volt charger to charge all three of them perfectly with 0 hassle and a single pair of wires to charge the batteries.

Any vendors out there that makes a single bank 36Volt on boa rd charger?

p.s.
If a person has a 36 volt trolling motor battery and a single 12 volt starting battery, you can hook these 4 batteries in series and use a single 48 volt charger to charge all 4 batteries at the same time with a single pair of wires and a single bank charger.
Any vendors out there which have a single bank 48 volt charger available?

Remember, in a boat, the grounds of electrical circuits are what the electrician makes of them. i.e. there is not a common gound in the boat wiring - unless the person wiring the boat makes it that way.
So, it is no issue at all to have your regular boat wiring with its 12 volt system - + 12 and ground with its related activities and they will work just fine.
Then, simply take the + terminal of the starting battery and jumper it to the - terminal of your trolling motor battery, whether it is 12, 24, or 26 and you will have your larger voltage battery as measured from the - of the starting battery to the + terminal of your trolling motor battery. These are the locations where a single bank, higher voltage charger would be connected.

The only thing that you have to remember, is that the - terminal of the trolling motor battery is sitting at 12 volts above the ground connection of the rest of the boat wiring. No big deal. Just don't short those points together.

I just wish that boat, engine and accessory manufacturers would start wiring their boats this way, because it would vastly simplify the charging wiring requirements of the boats electrical system. One pair of wires to take care of all of the boats charging needs from a single one bank higher voltage charger.


Take care
REW

[Hot Runr Guy]

Dual Pro has their line of "Eagle" 12 to 48V chargers, that they refer to as on-board, and water resistant, but not waterprooof.
http://www.dualpro.com/media/pdf/Eag...rt%2071009.pdf

Looks like they'd need to be mounted in a ventilated compartment, so the cooling fan would work properly.
Hope this helps,
HRG

[REW]

Thanks,
These look like very high quality industrial chargers that would last a long time.

REW

[Burr]

I don't know the answer for sure REW, but here is my concern with charging the battery as a group, instead of as individual batteries. If you charge as a group, your batteries may not all be at the same level of discharge. So each battery would achieve a full charge at a different time. But by charging them as a group, you would continue to charge batteries that had already reached a full charge state - and then over charge those batteries.

Past mistakes I've made have demonstrated how drastically battery life is shortened if a battery is overcharged.

By charging them as individual batteries, when it reaches a fully charged state, the modern marine chargers will quit sending current to that battery, while continuing to charge the other batteries that have not yet reached a full charge.

Additionally, I recall reading about voltage drop for middle batteries in a 36 volt system charged as a group. A 24 volt group would not suffer the same issue. But the middle batteries will be charged differently on a 36 volt system due to the current running through the first and third battery, in addition to the wiring between the batteries. I'd look for the doc, but I know HRG will beat me to it. He finds all that stuff...