Peck Posted September 2, 2013 Report Share Posted September 2, 2013 Took a trip to bass pro today and came home with a new on board charger. I got the 3 bank charger even tho I only have two batteries. It was on sale and I plan to eventually upgrade to a 24V trolling motor. I asked the sales guy if I could use a 3 bank charger with only two batteries and he said yes no problem. Well after reading thru the instructions it says that each lead has to be hooked to one battery. It has several diagrams but nothing for hooking to only two batteries. Anyone have experience in this? Can I hook the 3 bank to my 2? Im thinking leave the one bank unhooked, but this may make the charger think the battery is dead and send more juice to that bank. My other thought was to hook two leads to one battery? But since instructions say each lead to only one battery im hesitant to try this. Any thoughts or ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stratos260 Posted September 2, 2013 Report Share Posted September 2, 2013 I don't have much experience with a n onboard charger but I am a mechanic. I can't see any reason that you couldn't hook two sets of leads on one battery. 12 volts is 12 volts any way you slice it. If someone else has tried this and it didn't work please chime in but my opinion is that it would be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fisherman1488 Posted September 2, 2013 Report Share Posted September 2, 2013 My buddy Jeffrey(blue jig) has a three bank charger with only two batteries hooked up. I text him but he has not got back to me yet. Ill let you know as soon as he does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fisherman1488 Posted September 2, 2013 Report Share Posted September 2, 2013 Blue Jig said he just left the third bank unhooked and zip tied connections out of way. He leaves his plugged in all the time between uses and has had no problems. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peck Posted September 2, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2013 (edited) Thanks. Seems like either way will work. Any other input? Edited September 3, 2013 by Peck 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peck Posted September 3, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2013 Bump....plan to install tonight. I'm still undecided on which way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fence Post Posted September 3, 2013 Report Share Posted September 3, 2013 If you are thinking about upgrading to 24volt and have room for the third battery, go ahead and throw in an inexpensive deep cycle to connect the third lead to. Back when I only had a 12 volt, many times I wished I had a spare. Run your black lights, live wells, and electronics off it until you upgrade the TM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronzebackhuntr Posted September 3, 2013 Report Share Posted September 3, 2013 I know that my dual pro charger will not send power to a lead if it doesn't detect that a battery is there. Last winter when I had a battery go bad it had dropped to such a low voltage that I had to hook a set of jumper cables to it to get enough of a charge in it that the charger would detect it and start sending power to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peck Posted September 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2013 I ended up buying another battery as a spare, may end up hooking up both to the TM still using 12V. It would be hard to separate my lights livewells and electronics from the my cranking battery since it's all factory wired to it. I did hook the charger up with only two batteries and left the other bank unhooked and that seemed to work fine. As for mounting the charger. What is the best location for it? Did a dry run tonight playing around with it but didn't do the permanent mount yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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