Fried my rectifier output connector by being stoopid and not doing the math. I've got 30A or so worth of load when everything is turned on, and my PD rectifier is rated at 20A.

I was thinking that the battery would provide the power for the accessories and that the rectifier output would just charge the battery at whatever it's capacity was. Looks like I was wrong.

I could run a second battery just for the load, but don't want to have to worry about manually charging it or risk going without accessories. I could set it up with a dual diode charging system, this would take care of the worries about keeping the battery charged but won't fix the current draw problems.

Helpful suggestions, anyone, besides running a spotlight instead of the headlights ?

Your load didn't fry the rectifier. Just replace it. A short somewhere is the more likely culprit...but electronics do fail sometimes for no real reason.

You had to have a short somewhere to burn that plug. As long as your lights and stuff are hooked to the battery, you should be fine. I've run way more than that off my battery without damaging anything on the motor...

the motor is only going to make what its going to make. you cant pull more load out if it than it can make. you may start to over heat the items you are trying to use but not the other way around.

re read the post. if you had connector problems with salt water then that would cause the heat with the faulity connection. also if it got the connectors i bet its in the wire also. it will travel up the wire forever pretty fast too.