I’m about to upgrade trolling motors to a 36v system. I’m confused on how the 3 bank chargers work.  Can you school me on how they work? 

The Dual Pro 3 bank hooks up to each battery Battery with 3 sets of leads but does that mean I have to first disconnect the batteries from each other so it’s not 36v before I charge them??? How are they set up? Does the means it charges each battery independently as a 12v? 

 

NoCo makes the GX3626 which is a 36v charger. The batteries stay hooked up together to form 36v and the NoCo has 1 pos lead at battery one and 1 neg lead at battery 3 and I assume charges all 3 together as 1 battery. How long will that take to charge the 3 batteries say at 50%? Is this even a good charger for 36v???
 

Most 3 bank chargers will have 3 sets of leads, 1 for each battery. It doesn't matter that the batteries are hooked up with jumpers to create 36 volts because the leads go on the positive and negative of the same battery, so it charges each battery individually. Charge time depends on the amperage the charger puts out. The higher the number the faster the charge. You have to be careful with that though as some companies will list the total amps the charger puts out instead of the amps per bank. Additionally, some of those may not be evenly split. For instance there are some 3 bank chargers designed more towards 24v trolling motor systems that 2 banks would have a higher charge rate, like a 12 amp that delivers 5 amps on 2 banks and 2 amps on the 3rd. That thought is that the 3rd bank would be for your starting battery. 

 

Not sure what your current setup is, but a lot of people with a 36v system opt for the 4 bank charger so your starting battery is also getting charged and there's only charger and 1 plug. When you get done for the day, plug it in 1 plug and you're good to go the next time you're ready to use it. 

If you are going to a  36 volt trolling motor go ahead and get a 4 bank charger.  Get a 10 to 15 amp per bank unit.  Even they may take as long as 7 hours to get your batteries back to 12.7 volts.

Thanks. I’m not sure how the batteries can be wired together in series but then charged individually but if it works it works. My degree in mathematics should mean I understand the engineering but sadly I must have missed that class.