Bud, We use a standard plug-in type battery charger. It's a multi purpose charger that works with both car batteries and deep cycle, nothing fancy. We keep our M-15 in the garage and the charger on the work bench. When getting ready for a cruise I connect the charger to one end of my pig-tail cable and the other end I plug into the 12 vdc aux outlet in cockpit. The onboard battery then charges through the 12 vdc aux. connector. I mostly use the M-15 battery for the anchor light and occasional use of the VHF. I also use a small 150 watt inverter to charge my cell phone, digital camera, and PDA. The inverter plugs into the 12vdc aux outlet in the cockpit. Everything else on the boat; FRS radio, Walkman, flash light, GPS, they all run on "AA" batteries. The most power hungry of these is the GPS but it will run for several days on a set of "AA" 's. Its a Garmin GPS 12. I buy one of those 32 pack of "AA's" from Costco at the beginning of the season and have batteries to spare. One thing I have been careful to do when bringing other electronics on board is to buy devices that use "AA's", that way I only have to stock one battery size. The battery full charged will handle a long weekend of use and anchoring. For longer cruising I use a kerosene anchor light that hangs from the boom, it will run all night on a single fill and is amazing at staying lit even in a strong blow! The anchor light and transmitting on the VHF are what put the greatest drain on the main battery. My wife and I are in the market for a good clean M-17. On a 17 I think the best setup would be to have a alternator/charger built into the outboard. In a pinch you could run the outboard to charge the battery. On the longer trips like the San Juan & Gulf Islands we tend to motor about 50% of the time, that would keep the battery full charged. The only obsiticle I see with this solution is how best to make the electrical connection between the outboard alternator and your onboard battery. The connector would need to be highly weather & salt water resistant if at the motor. Or maybe a short pig-tail from the motor to a less weather resistant connector in the cockpit locker. Randy Graves M-15 #407
________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Bud Sent: Sat 1/8/2005 2:57 AM To: [email protected] Subject: M_Boats: M15 Electical system...Thanks RandyG Just wanted to say thanks Randy for the informative photos regarding the wiring of your M15. Its really a nice set up. Very neat. I may do the same thing. Can you tell me how you charge your battery? Small portable solar system? Fair winds Bud M15 #500 --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - now with 250MB free storage. Learn more. _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
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