Mercury 15pro kicker charging question

[Fisher_dude]

I’ve been doing a lot of winter fishing in the interior and have noticed that my battery voltage drops pretty quick when running my heater. I spent the time on Friday to figure out what was going on and it turns out that the previous owner never bothered to have the charging option added. I’ve scoured the Internet over the past few days looking for a wiring diagram on how to add it but I can’t find anything. The motor comes stock with a 12amp/145watt alternator and the wiring kit to make it all work is pretty cheap but I don’t know why I couldn’t just make up my own harness to connect it all. Has anyone dealt with this problem or am I just gonna have to bite the bullet and order one as it comes with instructions on where to connect everything. Here’s a pic of the harness.

 

[noluck]

seems cheap to buy that one

 

[Reel Gone]

Seems pretty simple to do but this harness seems fairly reasonable. If you don’t hard wire it you would want some weather pack plugs like Deutsch connectors and then the appropriate tinned wire that would likely add up to be a little cheaper than this kit but likely not worth the hassle. Do you have Deutsch crimpers?

 

[Fisher_dude]

Seems pretty simple to do but this harness seems fairly reasonable. If you don’t hard wire it you would want some weather pack plugs like Deutsch connectors and then the appropriate tinned wire that would likely add up to be a little cheaper than this kit but likely not worth the hassle. Do you have Deutsch crimpers?

Negative.

 

[IMRINC]

If it is a 15 Prokicker it will charge through the battery cables. No kit needed.

 

[Fisher_dude]

If it is a 15 Prokicker it will charge through the battery cables. No kit needed.

Huh. Odd that they would offer a kit for it. I’ll fill up my garbage can and run the motor in it and check what the voltage is doing. Maybe I have a draw somewhere else that I need to track down.

 

[Rain City]

Huh. Odd that they would offer a kit for it. I’ll fill up my garbage can and run the motor in it and check what the voltage is doing. Maybe I have a draw somewhere else that I need to track down.

Downriggers

 

[Fisher_dude]

If it is a 15 Prokicker it will charge through the battery cables. No kit needed.

100% correct. Whoever wired this boat needs a lesson on proper wiring and where it should go. Heater is wired to my start battery. Which would be fine if there was only 1 motor. But, since I use my kicker 90% of the time, I’m gonna wire it over to my house battery, which the kicker charges.

 

[fishin solo]

You got a ACR ? If not you should grab one

 

[Fisher_dude]

You got a ACR ? If not you should grab one

I had one in my last boat. I just assumed a 2018 boat would come with one but apparently it doesn’t.

 

[brutus]

I had one in my last boat. I just assumed a 2018 boat would come with one but apparently it doesn’t.

Your heater might be drawing more then you think, them things pull a lot of amps. My kicker only has a 6 amp charging system,old honda, and when i run too much at once it still draws on my battery,Ex , gps, radar, wipper, radio, vhf.

 

[BigHog]

I have a 2016 Pro Kicker with the 12 amp charging and it has been great for many years. Wired to my house batteries and I run all day with electronics, stereo and downriggers. Happy with it. I run 10 guage wire from kicker harness to battery selector.