How do you keep your electric trolling motor charged?

[Bearheartraven]

Good morning,

Up bright and early today day dreaming about walleye and loon calls while I work to plant some garden before it rains again. When we head north we usually camp and by day three or four my trolling motor battery is usually shot. I have been researching options for maintaining the battery and considering just running off the starting battery for my 25 hp evinrude, but that kinda scares me. I've used a solar panel in the past w/ poor results. I've considered an extra battery with a switch to move between them and I'm aware of crossover chargers that divert the alternator charge to a second battery when the starting battery is full. What do you do?

Thanks!

[Canuckbass]

Plug in charger to generator.

[crunchie]

Not much info to go with here.  When you say you "camp", what exactly do you mean?  Camping can mean a whole lot of choices.  Is electricity an option?  Do you have a generator?  I'm assuming you have a 25hp that has a charger, you can always hook up your trolling battery to your starting battery and it will charge it, but you must connect it parallel, eg; positive to positive and negative to negative.     Otherwise you'll be running 24 volts instead of 12 volts.  Then again, how much do you run your 25 hp? Or you can disconnect your main starting battery and just charge your trolling battery once running.
You need energy to charge, no way around it.  Solar, gas, propane, etc.

[Bearheartraven]

Camp to me equals tents in the bush. No generator.no electricity except that produced by the outboard's alternator.

Thanks

[Canuckbass]

Camp to me equals tents in the bush. No generator.no electricity except that produced by the outboard's alternator.

Thanks

Is taking a 2nd fully charged battery an option? Would be best I think.

[Jay Thomas]

I haven't camped in a tent since 1986. That's 30 years ago and I'm now 73. I take a 2000 watt Honda generator on my fishing trips because the places I go don't provide access to electricity. An extra deep cycle battery will probably weigh about 30 pounds. My generator weighs 46 pounds. I'd rather take a generator and a charger than an extra battery. However, to each his own.

Jay

[RHYBAK]

Have you ever thought of forgetting about the electric motor and using a drift sock to slow you down.or a trolling plate.

Other than that , invest in a generator.

[brotherlund]

        I use my minn kota to follow the contours of structure a few hours a day and have had great luck two solar panels and a pair of those blue top deep cycles