[C320-list] Xantrex shore charger

[Karl Mielenhausen _/)]

Kirk,

To follow-up on Herb's excellent post...

I think your major consideration in choosing between 20a and 40a is how  
you use the boat and recharge you batteries.
If you do a lot of gunkholing and are on the hook 3-4 nights at a time,  
when you get to a marina and AC, you may want to be able to fully recharge  
overnight. That would drive you to the 40a unit. The TC40+ will be  
slightly noisier, because it has a cooling fan (which is good IMHO). On  
the other hand, if you are marina hopping and/or day sailing, the 20a unit  
will do just fine.

Another consideration, if you think you need the 40a unit, is the size of  
your wires back to the batteries. The TC40+ can put out (briefly) as much  
as 40a into any one of the 3 positive legs. The Xantrex manual recommends  
wiring for a max. 3% voltage drop. They say a TC20+ with 10' one-way wire  
run should have 8awg wire. The same 10' one-way run for the TC-40+ calls  
for 6awg.
My boat has the TC20+ and 10awg wire (I believe).

On Sun, 10 Feb 2008 01:28:49 -0500, Kirk McCullough  
<kirk.mccullough at telus.net> wrote:

> I know this has been discussed already, but I would like to know what  
> size charger is needed or best suited. I am considering the Xantrex  
> iether 20 amp or 40 amp.
>
> Any installation tips would also be much appreciated.
>
> Kirk
>
> Boomerang #124



-- 
Karl Mielenhausen
Catalina 320 Hull 690
New Bern, NC