Battery for trolling motor
I think I need to buy a new deep cycle battery for my trolling motor. It came with one when I bought it about 4 years ago but it sat since I got it and now doesn't seem to want to take/hold a charge (I know the charger works because I used it on my motorcycle).
I plan on using the trolling motor (MinnKota 30 lb thrust) to power my 15' Ghennoe for fishing on some local lakes as my 9.9 Gamefisher motor is down at the moment and the trolling motor should work fine for what I want to do.
What size battery should I get to power the trolling motor and how long will a charge generally last (how much use)? I saw two Interstate deep cycles at Costco, one was a 700 amp for $62 and one a 750 amp for $82. Would one of these be fine? I'll probably be on a chain of lakes and would like to get about 6-8 hours of use (higher speed to travel between lakes), is this reasonable? I bought the trolling motor to go with the boat and gas motor about 4 years ago but haven't used them yet.
The bigger the better when it comes to trolling motor batteries. And the old adage applies...you get what you pay for. Look at the "reserve capacity". It will be stated in minutes. The amp rating (700/750) is a maximum rating in amps the battery will deliver for a few seconds. It tells you nothing about the "run time". Batteries will also have a Ahr (Amps per hour) rating, the higher the better for trolling motors. To run all day, especially on high thrust, you will most likely need two large group 27 or 31 batteries.
Ok thanks, I'll have to check the numbers more.
Is there anything I can do to check to see if the one I have is dead? Is there anything I can do to "revive" it?
If you have enough room to run two batteries, run two six volt golf cart batteries in series. The plate size per cell is where you have an advantage.
If the one you have won't take a charge, it has a dead cell.
Agreed that twin 6 volters will have more overall capacity, but less flexibility. If you know you are only going to be out for a couple of hours there is no need to tote two 6v batteries when one 12v will do. I bet your battery is bad. You could take it to a place like Auto Zone and have it charged and checked, but in my experience a battery that has been sitting dead for long periods will never recover. Out here in the desert, yes there are boats in the desert, marine batteries will last about 2 years with average maintenance. Longer if the boat is actually used and not left sitting tied up for months at a time. Meticulous owners who run a battery maintenance program themselves and have expensive chargers can get 5 or 6 years from a battery, but thats not the norm.
I think my battery is dead then, it's probably 5-6 years old now anyways. I'm going to look at the batteries again tomorrow and I'll probably get one to start with and then add another if I need more run time. I'll look at the 6v batteries but since I will be using a gas motor some in the future I'll probably want to be able to run just one battery at times at least.
Edit: Well I topped off the water in my old battery and charged it overnight, ran the trolling motor on my friend's lake for two hours and it still had juice. I guess I get to save that money a little while longer. Thanks for the input everyone, at least I know what I need when I do have to buy a new battery.
