Solar panel charger for trolling motor battery

[unclefish]

This is not really a true diy because the solar panel is assembled but I did build a stand for it with some lumber I had laying around.

My boat is out at my property with no way to charge the trolling motor battery after I use it on the lake. This will charge the battery in about 2 days.

It's a 50W panel with a controller mounted underneath to shut the charging off when it's full.

[bwssr]

hands free and green!

[PYBUCK]

Are you selling it or just showing it to us?

[unclefish]

Just showing you guys in case someone needed to charge something without electricity.

This panel came in a kit from amazon and gets great reviews. It was $129 for the kit...which includes the panel, controller, and about 15 feet of wire.

I looked at the cheaper panels at academy and they just don't have the juice to charge a big battery. 40-50W panels will charge them in no time.

[gonehuntin68]

That will work great for charging your battery but it won't come close to charging a drained battery in two days unless you are using a battery that it rated at 40 AH or under and most good trolling motor batteries are 100 AH or above. I'm sure that probably wont be a problem but just to let you know it will probably take about 5 days to charge a drained trolling motor battery.

[Carpe_diem]

Nice rig!

[unclefish]

That will work great for charging your battery but it won't come close to charging a drained battery in two days unless you are using a battery that it rated at 40 AH or under and most good trolling motor batteries are 100 AH or above. I'm sure that probably wont be a problem but just to let you know it will probably take about 5 days to charge a drained trolling motor battery.

You are right when talking about a fully drained battery. I have a 115 AH battery and that 50W solar panel puts out 3amps per hour. I don't run my batteries down to zero because that severely diminishes their life. There is probably 40% left in them on average.

Two days would get me very close to fully charged assuming that there is good sunlight for 10 hours a day. I was amazed at how much the panel was still outputting even as the sun was almost setting (2.5 amps).

[Bryan]

Looks good.