I'm thinking of taking out the transformer and just letting the accessories run off the batteries, and installing a trickle charger that runs whenever the boat is plugged into 110.  The transformer is original-1969-and gets hot and acts up, any reason not to do this?

The transformer is an "isolation transformer" and isolates your boat from the shore electrical system. THIS IS FAR AND AWAY THE BEST SYSTEM for a _meta_l boat. They are the only really good way to assure yourself that you did all possible to eleminate "stray current corrosion". (Sometimes called electrolysis which is a different animal)

These things normally run hot but don't act up unless you are overloading it. How much of a load are you putting on it? How is it acting up? What is your dock voltage when everybody is there?

If you go the other way you need to install a Marine charger. Regular chargers are not isolated from ground and can cause parts of your boat to dissapear. A galvanic isolater should also be installed in your ground line.

Do a load check on each system to see if you have a problem. A shorted water heater element is one of the first things to look for. It's possible the transformer could be defective but I haven' t seen a bad one in 47 years of boating. I owned 4 _meta_l boats with transformers including 3 River Queens.

Email me if you need more info.

My transformer on our 69 use to come and go we found the copper plates that come out of the top of the tranformer where the wires hook on were loose and dirty. We sanded them and tightened the connections and solved our problems.