Installing On Board Charger onto Storage Box (Picture Heavy)

[Donald Garner]

Greetings to everyone,

While out on my last trip in the Stratos I found out the On Board Battery Charging System was Non-Operational.  Year before last I purchased an on board charger and had it installed.  It worked great for 2 years and all of sudden it stopped charging for some reason.   

I decided to replace the old charger with a Minn Kota Digital 3 bank charger.  I have this same brand in my G3 only in the 2 bank model.  This new charger the mounting holes are different from the old charger.  Not wanting to drill new hole into the fiberglass I decided to mount this new charger in a different location.  I mounted it to the backside of my storage box on the driver's side. 

Below are a few pictures of the installation.

Old charger and location


The storage box isn't durable and stable enough to mount the new charger too by itself.  I reinforced the inside and exterior of the box with 1/4inch plexiglass.  I made measurements and had Lowe's cut the sheet in half.  I then trimmed it down to fit flush inside and out.

Storage box with trimmed plexiglass



I drilled 10 holes in the box and plexiglass.  I wanted to be sure the plexiglass was firmly attached to the box.  There are 4 holes in the center of the box for the charger.  The exterior holes are to hold the plexiglass to the box.

Exterior holes and charger mounting bracket holes



Charger mounted to exterior of storage box


After checking to see if this was going to fit etc.  I took everything apart and started installing it into the Stratos.  Right off the bat I had to do some reworking of the top mounting bolts. When I dropped the storage box back inside of the deck the 2 bolts at the top were catching on the lip of the back deck.  I pulled the 2 bolts out and got the box dropped in.  I wound up changing these 2 bolts for 3 inch stainless steel screws.  So now the top of the box and plexiglass is secured with these screws.

After getting the box secured it was just a matter of getting the 4 mounting bolts installed for the charger.  Instead of having the charger sit flush against the box I put a washer and nut on the bolt to give a little space between the box and charger.

I got the charger secured on to the mounting bolts and connected all the cables up to the batteries.

Charger mounted with cables connected and secured






With the new charger mounted in this location I was able to do away with the previous cable extension I had to purchase for the old charger.  I used zip strips to secure the cable to other areas under the back deck.  This will keep the cables off the floor and clear of the pumps etc.

With the job complete I got all my Plano boxes stored back into the box.

Crankbaits / Spinnerbaits / Jig Storage
 

[Bassinkorea]

Nice clean install there Donald   

Great tip for using the plexiglass to stiffen up the box for the mounting the charger   

[Mike Cork]

I missed this from before, what a great idea for making the install more stable That's for the detail in instruction.