Good idea or a bad idea?

I got a new boat this spring and had the 3 bank onboard charger swapped into the new boat. I swapped a 24 volt trolling motor from the old boat to the new as well. In the old boat I connected the charger to the trolling motor batteries and the starter battery. So I charged all 3 at once. When the dealer setup the new boat he said I don’t need to connect the charger to the starting battery. What do you guys think and is there anything I need to be worried about?

Hook it up. It will keep that battery topped off just like the others. What if you leave a switch on in the boat? I have had mine hooked up for 3 years. works great.

I agree. You have the extra bank, might as well use it.

Xs2

Have them hook it up. Most likely they just dont want to go through the extra work to run the wires back there. As long as you have it, hook it up.

If its a smart charger the maintenance should help increase the life of the battery. Hook it up if possible.

I regret not getting a 3 bank charger instead of a 2 bank.

Hook up the third bank, you will not regret it.

Quote:

---

If its a smart charger the maintenance should help increase the life of the battery. Hook it up if possible.

---

What he said.

I do not have mine hooked up and have never had a problem. Having said that, if I had space on my charger, I would hook it up. There is absolutely nothing to lose and probably something to gain.

I use my boat on a old quarry about 50 acres.We seldom use gas motor.But do use electronics,pumps,etc.Some times two or three days.Wish I had a third wire to hook up.Would save bringing a second charger.What they said,if you have it hook it up

Sounds like a dealer that wants to sell more cranking batteries…

Absolutely hook the cranking battery to the charger. You’ll GREATLY increase the life of your battery.

Dan

I saved a few bucks by going 2 bank, I also spent a day at pool 4 trying to get back to Everts with a dead starting battery and no tools to change the bow mount battery to the starting battery.

I now have tools and wish I’d gone 3 bank…do it, go 3 bank.

btw, thanks to the guy who towed us in..
al

For reasons stated above, definately hook it up. I know on my 3 bank charger all the wires need to be hooked to a battery for it to work properly even if you don’t have 3 batteries, so one of the batteries would have 4 wires on it.