Received my Stealth 1 DC 12/24 Volt charger from Danny yesterday. This thing is industrial grade and should last until Earth runs out of oil. They heat shrink wrapped and marked all the cable ends with a description of where they connect. After talking with Danny I learned that he can make the system be convertible from 12V, like I need now, to 24V if I should need later. All it takes to convert is removing one jumper on the front of the unit. Also considered I already have a Guest AC battery maintenance charger and bagged getting the AC unit and went with the tow charging package. That package provides a dedicated 30A, 10 gauge feed from my tow vehicle battery through a plug on the back bumper to the Marinco trolling motor plug on the front deck of my boat. The digital voltmeter with alarms is the part I'm most excited about. According to Danny, running the engine just a little on an as needed basis makes battery life a lot longer, and also provides security for reducing the size of the starting battery to save weight. I will not be using the battery switch, so if anybody needs one let me know what we might trade?
Spent this past rainy Saturday squeezing the Stealth 1 into my console. Works like its supposed to and charges my trolling motor battery with power from the cranking battery. Kicks in just as soon as the voltage on the cranking battery goes above around 13.0 volts. Brings my AGM trolling motor battery up to 14.1 while charging the cranking battery with a little Guest 6 amp maintenance charger. Once I get the tow package rigged up I may never use the AC charger again, and may even down size my cranking battery to take a few pounds off the boat.
I left everything off for the past week and with both batteries at 12.8 volts I plugged the AC charger for the starting battery on. The voltage at the starting battery immediately went to 13.8 and within a minute the voltage on the trolling motor battery was at 14.0. So based on my observations, the Stealth 1 charges the trolling motor battery whenever the starting battery voltage is above full charge. (12.8 VDC) This is what it is designed to do so that you're using engine alternator current to top off the starting battery and charge the trolling motor batteries at the same time. A charging relay can do the same thing for 12VDC systems, but cannot step-up the starting battery voltage from 12 VDC to 24VDC (or 36VDC) like the Stealth 1 can. Considering the Stealth 1 is a separate charger, I think the Stealth system allows the charging power to go to the weakest battery, and not just put both batteries in parallel like a charging relay does. This is exactly what I'm expecting when I run my trolling motor on high for extended periods while fishing the beach tomorrow.
