Redneck shore charging station

So i decided to make a "shore charging station". I put a battery charger on the wall and ran a 14 gauge wire to the ceiling and across to where the boat sits. I knew i needed a connector so i found a nice waterproof 12v plug on ebay. The power goes to the common post on the perko switch so i can choose what battery i want to charge.

Is this dumb? It was kind of an experiment but it seems to be working.

Pretty cool. Or you could have connected to a cig lighter plug, also available on ebay. And plugged in anywhere on boat, then used your perko to isolate either one or neither of the batteries. Then you would not have to mess with wiring at all on perko.

Good job though. Thanks for sharing. Your lucky to have your boat handy in the winter.

Just curious why you didn't want to mount the battery charger in the boat? Then all you need is an extension cord and you can charge it up anywhere you want, instead of only being able to use the connectors in your garage.

Ewok01, I was wondering the same thing, unless he is using the charger to charge other batteries besides his boat.

Good question ewok. For one reason i want to be able to check battery status and turn on/off the charger while not in the boat. Another reason is that early SANs dont have a lot of extra storage and at charger isnt made for marine environments.


I like the cig lighter idea and i didnt even thonk about that. But my cig lighter is turned on/off with my ignition being on and accy 1 on also. Seems like a battery drain

You got me, cig lighter idea a bust.

You also have to make sure the cig lighter can handle the Amps of the charger.

I use a trickle charger like this one.
http://www.amazon.com/NOCO-G1100-Bat...rickle+charger

I wire it to both batterys and its small enough to store in the boat. Plug her in every time the boat gets put in its home and havent had a problem. It reads fully charged after sitting a night but I am not 100% sure if it actually charges both batteries

#14 Wire may not be heavy enough for a long run at 12 Volts if that is a 10 amp charger. I would make sure that no part of the wire gets warm while charging. If the wire is not heavy enough, there will be voltage drop at the battery end, and charging will not be as effective, and it could be a safety problem. There is an online voltage drop calculator http://www.calculator.net/voltage-drop-calculator.html to help determine the correct size wire, more than 15 Feet is a long way for 12 volt DC power.

The length of the wire is roughly 15 feet. The charger is 2 amp,6 amp or 10 amp. I like to charge at 2 amp so i am seeing a .15 volt drop from that distance. Is this cause for any concerns?

At 2 amp, that should be fine, 10 amp could be an issue.

And the short distance makes it OK, I was thinking that it was farther away.

Ok thanks. Like i said, it was an experiment. Thanks for the help!