I have a new to me boat that I purchased from the estate of a captain who died nearly two years ago.
At some point, he had installed a Xantrex Freedom 25 Inverter/Charger in line with Shore Power, so if the boat was plugged in, the batteries charged, and all 120V power ran through the inverter.
It had been sitting docked with no maintenance since he died 18 months ago - all wet batteries - so all 14 of them were wasted. I started swapping them out for new and yesterday in the middle of doing this, the Xantrex clicked about 15 times and went offline. When it did, it took shore power down with it and now no matter what I do, it will not come back online. I even tried smacking it around some based on suggestions from some RV message boards - that didn't work.
I am now in the process of having an electrician bypass it somehow because I need to get this boat underway to head north by 1 August and I don't need the inverter/charger for that - I just need shore power to work when I'm plugged in. The batteries will charge off the alternator while the engine is running.
However, I would like to buy a charger that I can plug in if necessary so that if we get stuck on shore power for an extended period for some reason, I don't lose the batteries.
I had a small Victron on my sailboat - but it only had a 180 AH D cell on it and this boat has (currently) 4 6-volt golf cart batteries in series/parallel, giving me 12 volts and 400 AH. I also have a couple of 12-volt batteries wired in parallel for 24 volts for the thruster and windlass and a 12-volt starter battery.
I'm looking for something that will charge all of them, but not break the bank and not have to be wired in like the Xantrex. When it comes time, I will expand the battery banks and buy something that will charge/invert - but I don't need it just to make the 10 to 15-day trip from where I am to where I'm going.
Thanks in advance for any assistance.
