R22 Discussion Group

Lee,
Sounds like a lot of problems without an easy way to determine exactly  where 
the problem is. Many years ago a hail storm took out my solar panel so I  
removed it and replaced it with a MARINE charger on board. They are sealed units  
with no accessible or serviceable parts anywhere. All solid state. I like 
this  arrangement because I always know that I will have fully charged batteries. 
I  would isolate the batteries or at least put in a battery switch allowing 
you to  chose how you want to use the power.
Your house battery should be a deep cycle battery and your battery for the  
motor should be a starting battery. West Marine and several others have a duel  
purpose battery which can be used as a starting battery and also takes to 
deep  discharges.
If you go with just the starting battery for the motor, I would isolate it  
from the rest of the electrical and have only the motor connected to it. 
Running  the motor should keep it fully charged. If it doesn't, at least you have  
isolated that problem.
I don't have an electric start motor so I don't have that problem. I have  
two deep cycle batteries beneath the V berth. One is connected to only the  
running lights. The other runs the cabin lights, VHF radio and a very power  
hungry stereo. Hope this helps.

Rummy

In a message dated 11/26/2008 12:16:49 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
LKUHN at cnmc.org writes:

I  seem to ask the same question around this time every year and I hate  to
beat a dead horse, but I am about ready to start beating my dead  battery.

I have two batteries and two solar panels.  

The  cabin battery is for everything but the motor and has both solar  panels
attached to it.  For three years it has been fully charged,  although it is
rare that it operates much aside from my depth/fish  finder.

The motor battery is only for the motor and is hard-wired to  the motor--it
gets charged by the motor.  All three years it has lost  its charge during
the winter.  It is also connected to the cabin  battery.  Last year there was
a charge coming from the cabin battery  to the motor battery, but I suspect
that it is too low to keep the motor  battery charged.

I haven't checked the batteries' charges yet nor have  I cleaned/checked the
connections, but I certainly will.

I own a  trickle charger that connects to a 110 outlet and I own an  AC/DC
convertor.

I think my new marina only has 220 electrical and I  haven't yet purchased an
expensive 220 cord nor have I had a need to do  so.

1.  Should I re-run the solar panels so that one charges the  motor battery
and one charges the cabin battery?  I assume there is no  danger with the
motor battery being hard-wired to the motor.  I don't  want to do this if one
solar panel won't be strong enough to keep the motor  battery charged or if I
will risk not being able to keep the cabin battery  charged with only one
solar panel connected to it instead of  two.

2.  Should I break down and buy a 220 cord and use my AC/DC  converter and
trickle charger to charge the motor battery?  Any  dangers to the trickle
charger, converter, or battery?

3.   Should I buy one of those rechargeable jumping battery panels to start
the  motor when the battery is dead?  I was thinking about getting one for  my
motorcycle anyway.  I hate it when I want to go for a ride or a  sail and
have to wait for the trickle charger to do its  thing.

4.  Any other recommendations?

Thanks for your  advice.  Just want to make sure the electrical juice is
worth the  economic squeeze.

Lee
1986 Rhodes22  At Ease
Kent Island,  MD
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Dead Battery (Again)