Do you guys have any recommendations for a small panel to maintain my fishing boat batteries.  2 batteries starting battery and a deep cycle for the trolling motor. The 2 loads then when the motor is off are 1. The trolling motor 2. The auto bilge pump. I would figure the trolling motor is about 150 amp hours per trip and I also fish off my pontoon  so maybe 1 time per week on this setup...if the bilge used 10amps per rain I would be surprised (guessing of course) 

Do you prefer built in controllers or separate...I saw a 50w with a built in controller putting out 3amps overkill?

14 minutes ago, SkisNH said:

Do you guys have any recommendations for a small panel to maintain my fishing boat batteries.  2 batteries starting battery and a deep cycle for the trolling motor. The 2 loads then when the motor is off are 1. The trolling motor 2. The auto bilge pump. I would figure the trolling motor is about 150 amp hours per trip and I also fish off my pontoon  so maybe 1 time per week on this setup...if the bilge used 10amps per rain I would be surprised (guessing of course) 

Do you prefer built in controllers or separate...I saw a 50w with a built in controller putting out 3amps overkill?

The built in unit sounds nice, what was the cost?

50w kits on Amazon are like $90

50w isn’t overkill.  Lead acid batteries like to sit at float voltage that most Chinesium solar controllers output.

Neal

 

Permanent or temporary equipment?

 

bottom 2 on this page would work.  Comes with everything you need for no muss or fuss.

https://www.renogy.com/solar-kits/rv-van-marine/

Edited March 14, 20232 yr by BOHICA

14 minutes ago, NaturallyAspirated said:

The built in unit sounds nice, what was the cost?

50w kits on Amazon are like $90

50w isn’t overkill.  Lead acid batteries like to sit at float voltage that most Chinesium solar controllers output.

Neal

 

https://www.solbian.eu/en/allinone-solution/46-sp-47-q.html

 

10 minutes ago, BOHICA said:

Permanent or temporary equipment?

 

bottom 2 on this page would work.  Comes with everything you need for no muss or fuss.

https://www.renogy.com/solar-kits/rv-van-marine/

I would mount it on my Dock post, so I could hook it to my pontoon boat if ever needed. 

The alternator on the pontoon has always been able to maintain the fishing battery....but nice to have the option to simply clip the terminals on the battery 

34 minutes ago, SkisNH said:

I would mount it on my Dock post, so I could hook it to my pontoon boat if ever needed. 

The alternator on the pontoon has always been able to maintain the fishing battery....but nice to have the option to simply clip the terminals on the battery 

Won’t take much to maintain batteries.  The ones I posted are overkill in your use case assumed you wanted something to charge the batteries.  Something cheap from Amazon should work if it’s listed for the battery type I guess.  We have some little 10 watt mounted on a few dump trailers and they seem to do well.  We also use to put something cheap on our military equipment when I was in the arm.  Like really tiny battery trickle chargers and our needed battery replacements went down bigly 

Edited March 14, 20232 yr by BOHICA

1 hour ago, BOHICA said:

Won’t take much to maintain batteries.  The ones I posted are overkill in your use case assumed you wanted something to charge the batteries.  Something cheap from Amazon should work if it’s listed for the battery type I guess.  We have some little 10 watt mounted on a few dump trailers and they seem to do well.  We also use to put something cheap on our military equipment when I was in the arm.  Like really tiny battery trickle chargers and our needed battery replacements went down bigly 

I will need to charge the deep cycle on my fishing boat...figured 50watt 3 amp would do it. The one you posted with a controller will simply do it faster...thanks for the link.

3 hours ago, SkisNH said:

Do you guys have any recommendations for a small panel to maintain my fishing boat batteries.  2 batteries starting battery and a deep cycle for the trolling motor. The 2 loads then when the motor is off are 1. The trolling motor 2. The auto bilge pump. I would figure the trolling motor is about 150 amp hours per trip and I also fish off my pontoon  so maybe 1 time per week on this setup...if the bilge used 10amps per rain I would be surprised (guessing of course) 

Do you prefer built in controllers or separate...I saw a 50w with a built in controller putting out 3amps overkill?

this is the setup I have. Works great!

https://www.lakelifter.com/products/12v-trolling-motor-battery-solar-charging-kit/

1 hour ago, Big Crappie said:

this is the setup I have. Works great!

https://www.lakelifter.com/products/12v-trolling-motor-battery-solar-charging-kit/

Thanks,

How many watt Panel did you get?

4 hours ago, SkisNH said:

Thanks,

How many watt Panel did you get?

20 

We used some cheap one off Amazon