Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I let my grandson use my deep cycle batteries for his trolling motor the other night,they have been sitting while I finish my project.I got the back the next day,discharged of course but no problem I'll just put them on the charger.Problem my charger didn't work,so off to Walmart to get a new charger. They had the Schumacher brand which is well know so I got the the 2,4,6 amp XC6 model.I have always been under the impression charging a battery at the lowest amperage is better for the battey [won't over heat it] but the instructions said not to use the maintenance setting to on a fully discharged deep cycle or large auto battery or "you will lose some of the battery's capacity". They have a chart that says to charge bigger batteries auto and marine at the 6 amp rate.Can anyone explain as it goes against anything I had ever read about charging batteries.

I was working on my Aunt's golf cart, the charger wouldn't work, I had the charger checked and it was good, then I took a regular charger and put a little charge in two of the batteries, then the 36 volt charger started working.

I have a tendency to follow directions when it comes to battery chargers.

The other night, I left my lawnmower battery on a 10 amp charge, and forgot about it. It stayed on all night on a $49 Harbor Freight charger.

I was on the bass fisherman website the other day, and a gentlemen said his trolling motor battery on a charger caught fire and burned his house down.

That got me thinking about using a low line, junk battery charger (like mine.) In the future, all battery charging will be done outside. And I'm going to buy a high quality battery charger that automatic shut off. And I'm going to try to keep a Battery Tender on my boat to make the battery last longer.

My new pontoon boat has a marine deep cycle battery. Since I'm not using trolling motors or a power booster on my sound system, I'll be switching to an auto battery when this one dies. Car batteries just last so much longer and they're also less expensive.

Here's what I use guys been doing a good job for 2 years.
http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-X ... /10224686/

I have a three bank charger for the deep draws, controls and charges each battery separately, I used one of my batteries to run every thing on the toon and left the starting battery for starting only, so when I got home and plugged in the charger, only the one battery that was used gets charged.

I charge my batteries every time after I use them. My battery charger has the auto shut off, and the on board chargers I use have them as well.

This is the charger I use. Both for my own pontoon and the boats at work. (the ones without onboard chargers)

It provides a "fast" charge for depleted batteries and trickle or float charge for maintaining a charged battery.

On the work boats I have one for each boat battery and one for the drop-winch (it's a double decker trailer). Haven't had a battery failure yet.

Runs $60-$70, depending on where you get it.

I thought more amps=quicker charge, lower amps=more fully charged

Depends on what battery type you are charging, deep draws like it slow

Just stating that Schumacher,a leader charger manufacturer says not to charge larger auto or deep cycle batteries on anything less than 6 amps on their 2-4-6 amp charger.

http://www.batterystuff.com/kb/articles ... asics.html

This article is informative.