13 replies to this topic

[bike4mee]

I have 2  batteries. I want to use 1 for my trolling motor, the other stays in the camper to run things. After use I want to charge it with solar during the day. How to wire this? They say if you put another drawn down battery in parallel it could hurt your fully charged battery. Should I get another solar modulator box and charge it away from the first one? Or does it matter?

 

Also does it matter that both batteries are different manufactures. Like putting duracell and energizer batteries in same flashlight?

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Don't put them in parallel. Look for a quick disconnect (Anderson?) to move controller output between batteries. Primary stays connected to camper. Or at least, that's my 2¢ worth.

[ntsqd]

Concur, make up some method to charge them separately. Be that heavy duty jumper cable clamps or pigtails with Anderson connectors or whatever.

[PaulT]

Think of this situation as similar to the truck battery/alternator system and the camper battery/solar system with a battery separator between them. Duplicate that solution between the two batteries in the camper using another ACR. That will allow recharging the trolling battery without affecting the camper battery.

You can think about it as a boat system with the camper battery as the boat starting battery and the trolling battery as the boat house battery.

Use large Anderson connectors to allow easy connect/disconnect of your trolling motor to the ACR & ground. You should be able to set it up so that you don't have to muscle the trolling battery back into the compartment if that helps.

Paul