Hey all, 

 

Looking for a reliable, PORTABLE (tired of running a drop cord 100+Ft to my lift) marine battery charger that will work well for a 12V deep cycle trolling motor and a cranking motor. 

I've seen the Minn Kotas that run from $50 to $80, but hoping you guys and gals have some cheaper options for me. 

Thanks! 

I'm a little confused about what you're trying to do so you don't have to run a cord.

 

As far as portable chargers,  maybe I'm just lucky but every battery charger I have ever used met my expectations.  I used a cheap Schumacher charger from Walmart for years to charge the batteries on my first boat and it worked great.  You can probably get something similar today for around $40.  I now use an onboard charger just for the convenience. 

You're still going to have to run a cord.  100 feet is a long way to run a cord.   How do you power the lift?   The times that I get to tie up at a marina I have a 25' cord and often that is too long, I could get by with a 15 foot cord.  As far as charger brands go, I have a Dual Pro Sportsman on board charger,  it is 8 or 9, maybe 10 years old and it still works.  The charger I had before that was a 3 bank Guest on board charger and it lasted 8 years then it went wonky.   By that I mean that it still kinda worked but wasn't always charging as fast as I wanted it to.

The Dual Pro, so far, it doesn't matter how much I run the trolling motor batteries, I get home ( or to the motel or marina ) plug it in and early the next morning it is ready to go.

If you build a solar charger you lose the cord. 

 

I posted this pic in another thread. I built this one and at 80 watts and with a decent amount of sunlight (no problem here in so.Flo) it will keep most batteries charged. If you go up with more modern panels to say 150-200 watt 12 volt panels (WITH a charge controller) unless they get a lot of bird dropping or snow on them, or spend a lot of time without sun you will be just about done.

 

Oh, PS it's not cheap (mine was ~$80 with some used parts) but it will get you where you want to be.