[FishMan]

Brian, not cool at all, but I understand feeling happy with a $1000 lost considering the potential of what could have happened. Thank you to everyone for sharing knowledge on the topic.  Being low tech, I charge with a portable charger literally, inches from my 3 gallon portable gas tank. Never again due to everyone sharing their history and knowledge. Great sight, with great quality people posting.

[59wizard]

 I need to buy a new charger. I have a very old 4 amp trickle charger I have used for years on my cars. The new boat has two separate lead acid batteries and I store it outside. If I charge them overnight, is it ok to leave my harbor freight float charger plugged into them? I think it charges at the micro amp level and is designed to taper off. Really great site and great info on this thread.
-Ed

[sandman]

I would not leave any electronics that I purchased from Harbor Freight plugged in for very long at all. I have a pair of those chargers that I bought for our quads. The have an ETL cert which does not require any more than initial design testing. I used them outdoors laying on my steel trailer for a couple of days. They worked OK.

Charging up your boat batteries before you store the boat is probably all that you need. They shouldn't really discharge while sitting outside unless there's some sort of parasitic drain on them. I use a Perko disconnect. No drain.