Wiring your kicker to charge your house batteries

Rain City

Rain City

Crew Member
So this might be a really dumb question but I was hoping to wire my merc 15hp efi to charge my house batteries when necessary. Would this need to involve a switch so that I'm not relying on my house batteries to start it? I'm trying to ditch the honda I have because as quiet as it is it's not silent and I have to run it on the dock so the fumes don't get to us. I figured on those longer trips when the boat sits for a couple days it's nice to keep the house batteries boosted for the fridge and other amenities. I was thinking about getting a solar panel otherwise as I have the control panel already installed. Good idea or bad idea?
 
If you have the roof space, solar is nice - its always there. The kicker is about the same as an 150 watt panel, but I dont know at what RPM the alternator puts out full power. You can find if for around 1/watt if you look around. Put up 300 watts and you have power to spare. The 15 kicker wont charge the house batteries very fast. If you need to bump the charge up, idle of of your diesels for 20 minutes their alternators are way bigger.
 
macro said:
If you have the roof space, solar is nice - its always there. The kicker is about the same as an 150 watt panel, but I dont know at what RPM the alternator puts out full power. You can find if for around 1/watt if you look around. Put up 300 watts and you have power to spare. The 15 kicker wont charge the house batteries very fast. If you need to bump the charge up, idle of of your diesels for 20 minutes their alternators are way bigger.
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The problem is smoking everyone out at the dock and killing the serenity. I have the eyebrow roof over the deck that I could put the panel on. Have about 3'x3' of space if I want to keep it centered. The old full enclosure on the flybridge had flexible panels that were impossible to clean.

One of those things that I got rid and then instantly realised I missed it. The sail effect caused by that camper enclosure just wasn't worth it though. Not to mention how butt ugly it looked.
 
Rain City said:
The problem is smoking everyone out at the dock and killing the serenity. I have the eyebrow roof over the deck that I could put the panel on. Have about 3'x3' of space if I want to keep it centered. The old full enclosure on the flybridge had flexible panels that were impossible to clean.

One of those things that I got rid and then instantly realised I missed it. The sail effect caused by that camper enclosure just wasn't worth it though. Not to mention how butt ugly it looked.
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You could have rented out that loft apartment for $1,500 a month.
 
tubber said:
Shore power at the dock? The kicker won't run the deep fryers.
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Fryers are propane!
And of course yes when there's shore power but this summer we were without power for 6 days.
 
Solar seems like a no brainer instead of running a kicker while you’re docked.

Get LED bulbs for all your lights and it should help.
 
If something goes wrong, you'd want to be able to run the kicker to charge the starting battery, plus keep up to the downriggers which should be on the house side. If you forget and start the kicker on the house battery occassionally, it won't be the end of the world.

So yes, you need to tie into the switch you have or add one.
 
Corey_lax said:
Solar seems like a no brainer instead of running a kicker while you’re docked.

Get LED bulbs for all your lights and it should help.
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No brainer but not free like switching the power over. Trying to save a penny after being in for a TON
 
Most kickers need to be run way above idle to charge at meaningful rate, you can get some 100watt solar panels for $100 on ebay that people I know have had very good results with. As far as wiring the kicker into the system its just straight to it.
 
Islander11 said:
Most kickers need to be run way above idle to charge at meaningful rate, you can get some 100watt solar panels for $100 on ebay that people I know have had very good results with. As far as wiring the kicker into the system its just straight to it.
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Thanks.
 
I did miss that you dont want to use your house batteries to start it, if you want to use starting batteries to start it, it would need a switch. Starting a kicker doesnt use many cranking amps at all though so it wouldnt be a big problem. Wiring the switch would be a standard 2 battery switch, kicker wired to main, and each battery bank to #1 or #2 and then a common ground for the negatives. With that system you can also charge your starting battery or both with the kicker.
 
spring time said:
Get a small Honda suitcase generator they are super quiet, way bettter than running your kicker motor at the dock
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Have one. Hated it. Runs at full throttle while the boats charging. Eveyone stared. Eveyone judged :(
Also one more thing to pack.
 
If you have solar panels they will charge while your fishing too.
I would just hook your kicker into the house batteries. Starting current for the kicker should be minimal and it will keep those batteries up as you run your riggers. . That is how I had my Seasport wired. Worked great.
You dont want a switch cause you’ll forget to flip back and forth.
 
Charge to the house batteries.
It can be nice to have a switch, not for charging, but for the rare occasion when you want all batteries going to the main starter.
Good thick jumper cables will do the same.
 
Gong Show said:
Charge to the house batteries.
It can be nice to have a switch, not for charging, but for the rare occasion when you want all batteries going to the main starter.
Good thick jumper cables will do the same.
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Valid point
 
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