Battery Charging Tip for Smaller Boats

Anglers and hunters are an inventive bunch of people. They're constantly look for better and easier ways to help themselves out on the lake or in the field. One such angler/hunter is a Northern Ontario Walleye Trail Pro, Eric Germain. A couple years ago I seen something on Eric's butt seat post that resembled a solar panel. I just had to go see if I was right. Sure enough, it was a solar panel. Eric told me he was tried of pulling his boat out of the water or his batteries from the boat to charge them when he wasn't at his camper. His remedy, a 25 watt Coleman solar panel which be bought at retail store. The solar panel came with all the wires and charging system (invertor).   All he had to do was design and then make his bracket to attach to the solar panel and his butt seat post. Although Eric is running a 12 volt bow mount trolling motor, he runs two12 volt deep cycling batteries in Parallel. (See picture above on how to connect the 2 batteries together for 12 volts.)  A little tip would to add a 50amp in-line breaker to your positive wire to your trolling motor. This will protect your trolling motor from any power surges. The 2 batteries allow him to squeeze 2 days out of his batteries on weekends without having to charge them with a battery charger.  After the weekend is over, Eric simply parks his boat and the solar panel will charge his batteries all week while he is at work.  All he has to do the following weekend when he returns to his camper is jump in his boat and go fishing.