Just bought a reconditioned Dual Pro SE 2 bank charger for my bass boat.

Have not decided exactly where to mount it or even if I mount it at all.  I hate to add more weight to my boat with today's gas prices.  I guess I could mount it and go on a diet and call it even . . . ;D

My boat is an 18 foot Winner with a Merc 150.  My bilge area is already somewhat crowded but there is room on the inside of the transom.

What do you all think of just attaching alligator clips to the leads and making the unit portable vs a permanent installation?

i think you take the time to mount the unit and use it as its intended. i mounted mine up high on the live well.

If you really don't want the weight in the boat and you don't mind hooking it up all the time then go for it. You can also just get some connectors that you could attach and leave them on the batteries and extend them so you can just plug the banks into the connectors on the batteries as long as they are not to far away from the charger when plugged in. Good luck.

dualpro makes a portable charger

http://www.dualpro.com/new/dpportable.html

mount the charger and when you fill up the gas tank on the boat stop 3 gals. before its full.  

If you want to save time and space, and even save a lot of money on the charger, all you need is a Combiner100.  Smaller than a pack of cigarettes and under $50 it will let you use any 12 volt single output portable charger.  Just clip it to the starting battery and both batteries will get charged.

An added benefit is whenever you are running the outboard, the trolling battery will get charged too.

I bought a XPS three bank charger from Bass Pro Shop about two months ago and all I can say is keep your receipt. Mine quit working and when I went to BPS there was another guy with the same problem. Even though I did not have my receipt BPS gave me another one. I kept this receipt. Yeah BPS! The onboard charger are great when they work.