[Rhodes22-list] Battteries

[cjlowe]

For what it's worth, I'm starting my 6th year on a Wal-Mart (group 24) deep
cycle trolling  battery. The first two years it was running a 40# thrust
trolling motor,pushing a Com-Pac 16. I charged it with an old 6 amp car
charger.The last three years , it's been the house battery in the Rhodes.I
charge it before launch,before vacation (mid July) and before winter with
the old car charger,the rest of the time it's fed with the 10 watt solar
panel from GB.I don't even have the panel stationary,I just screwed two 2x2
to the bottom of the panel and put a patch of Velcro on each corner and
matching patches on the fore deck and plug the solar panel cord into the 12V
panel outlet.Last year on vacation,I slept aboard 8 nights,anchored out 1
night,ran CD,VHF and GPS allot. Started out with 12.9 volts and had 12.4
volts left at the end of ten days.And I missed at least 30% of available
sunlight,by not having the panel out while sailing.
I would think that the battery wouldn't gas very much being slowly charged
by a solar panel.

Jerry Lowe