Solar panel to charge TM Batteries

[scooterbob]

I was wondering is there a way to mount a solar panel on your dock to plug into the 12v on board charger outlet on my boat to charge the TM batteries? My dilemna is I don't have power down to my dock, and it is quite a distance so I need to hook up multiple extension cords to get to the boat to plug into the on board charger outlet on the boat. I see the solar panels plug into the cigarette lighter or use alligator clips directly to the batteries, but I don't see a regular female 12v plug that comes with them. Wondering if anyone has a idea, or is running power down to the dock the only real way to alleviate the situation of running a couple hundred feet of extension cords? Thanks in advance.

[REW]

Scooter,
Solar panels would work just fine to recharge your trolling motor batteries if you have a few days to recharge your batteries between use.

If you use your boat like that, go ahead and install the panels with appropriate controller and cabling.

You can just use the Internet to do the necessary research to take care of your charging needs.

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My brother purchased a new hard sided travel trailer last year. Since he and his wife do quite a bit of"dry camping" where there are no facilities, he wanted a way to recharge his camper battery.

He installed a solar panel that is about 4 by 6 feet and is mounted flat on the roof of his camper. He hooked up a controller to the panel and to his single battery. He has never had to plug in his regular charger since he purchased his camper.
But, his use of his camper 12 volt battery is considerably different than the typical trolling motor battery.

If you have a need to be able to recharge your batteries in a single day - if the batteries are totally recharged, you will be needing to install some pretty big panels and with a pretty robust controller.

You also don't indicate if you have a single or multiple 12 volt batteries.
If you have multiple 12 volt batteries, then it would likely make sense to use multiple solar panels that are all hooked in series to be able to generate the necessary charging voltage, so that you could charge your multiple batteries as a single battery. i.e. if you have a 24 volt system, have solar panels that would develop about 30 volts so that you could run them through your solar controller and be able to nicely charge your 24 volt battery.

If you have a 36 volt trolling motor battery, then assemble enough solar panels so that you could generate about 40 volts to be able to run them through your solar controller and to be able to nicely charge your 36 volt battery.

I would think that if you have a 24 or 36 volt system, and if you wanted to charge the batteries in less than 24 hours, you could probably put a system together for less than $2,000 possibly much less.

Be safe
REW

[REW]

Scooter,
The very simplest thing to do would be to purchase enough 10 gauge wire to go from your nearest electricity and add electricity to your dock.

Or, you could possibly go to your power company and purchase the same wire that is used to wire up your house.

If you don't have a huge amount of rock or tree roots between your electricity source and dock, it might make a lot of sense to purchase underground cable and use a ground slitter to lay the undergound cable into the ground between your electric source and boat dock.

Then, use an ice auger with a dirt digging on the end to drop in some power poles to be able to bring power to your dock.

You could also hire the power company to actually extend the service from your house to your boat dock as well.

In the end, the expense and simplicity of running power to your boat dock is likely the best way to go - rather than dealing with solar and its vagaries.

Good luck
REW

[1860Angler]

Solar is good in theory, but like REW said if you discharge your batteries and want them charged for the next day you are going to need a lot of panels. I say run the extension cords or bury a power cable to give you dock power, probably be cheaper and much better in the long run, then you could install some lights down by the dock, and use the power for other things as well.

[Jerryv]

The only other practical alternative is a small (1000W) generator. They are light enough to carry back and forth easily and pretty quiet.

For only a couple of hundred feet the best thing is just to trench in a power cable and put an outlet close to the dock. Don't forget to use a GFI breaker on it.

Jerry

[scooterbob]

The more I research it, the more it becomes apparant that as you all have said, bite the bullet and run power down to the dock, the expense of purchasing said equipment just to charge the TM batteries alone vs. running power down to the dock which in turn would give me a power source for a outlet, light, electric winch for the shorestation, etc. pretty much makes it clear which way to go. Just was hoping for a relatively cheaper way to go, but, in this case. Wouldn't be the wisest. Thank you all for your input. Take care

[Eric_CO]

You might reach out to Tom Doc Johnson http://www.dancingloons.com/

He's got something going on with solar on his boat, but I'm not sure myself. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

[nicko]

The other issue you run into is if you are fishing all day and want to fish the next day, you're kinda out of luck. Solar is great if you want to charge during the day, but if you need to fish during daylight, no solar panel will charge at night.

Seems obvious, but most people miss that one. Solar panels aren't that efficient that you can charge in a few hours.

[jignpig]

Scooter,

Check out Goal Zero. I can confidently say we have the best solar available that is semi permanent/portable. Everything we build is chainable from our panels, batteries, and accessories. So you can chain panels to your power needs. We also have a charge controller our Guardian that will keep you from over charging. We also have the Yeti which is our new solar generator. Go to goalzero.com and check it out. If you have questions pm me and I will answer any I can and or get the answers for you.

[Lund1993]

Solar only works on sunny days if it is overcast or cloudy your out of luck i would stickwith a steady power supply like REW mentioned. I am an electrician and i have heard that charging batteries with generators/solar systems wears your batteries out faster.