[Opry99er]

...of these would be worthy of charging my crank and trolling batteries?

As you can see, I was snappin shots at "Tha WalMarts" (Which is local speak for "Wal-Mart")

 

[chadfish]

50 amp would be fastest

 

[skunkedagain1]

50amp. Is for jump starting a dead car battery. Lower trickle , 6-2amp. Is for deep cycle batt. Like your boat batt. First charger looks more versatile .

 

[TthePikester]

Owen, if it is just for the boat the 2nd or 3rd charger would be fine. If you want to use it for the cars also get the 1st.

 

[aofisher]

Not sure about those, but I went through 2 chargers in three years to find out that I would have been better off biting the bullet and spending a few more dollars upfront. The Minn Kota I bought as the third charger lasted 7 years and was still functioning when I sold my boat. Probably can't go wrong with the price range you are looking at though.

 

[pistoldog]

Owen, if it is just for the boat the 2nd or 3rd charger would be fine. If you want to use it for the cars also get the 1st.

Spot on.

 

[Opry99er]

Cool... I will probably get either #1 or #3... The second one has a relatively cheap plastic housing while the other two are metal.

Appreciate the replies.

And yea, cheap... but I will pretty much JUST be charging boat batteries once every couple weeks, so they ahould work for the money.

 

[hobiecat]

For longer battery life...get the batteries on the charger as soon as you can after using.

 

[Soapy Smith]

I don't recommend just a "fully automatic" charger (all of the pics you show) for all applications.

All of the fully automatic chargers I've run across will not charge a battery that has a charge of less than 25%. In my experience, if your battery gets down below 25%, you'll need a basic trickle charger to get it up above that, then you can use the fully automatic charger. The trouble is, you can't leave a trickle charger on all the time or you'll ruin the battery.

I recommend both a trickle charger and a fully automatic (or semi automatic) charger.

Also a heads up - you want to keep an eye on the clamps. I've seen clamps erode away on automatic chargers if you keep them connected to the battery for longer periods of time.

 

[ghostman]

I recommend a maintenance charger you leave on whenever the battery is not in use.
What you lose in initial cost will be made up over time in battery life and cost of replacement.