What type of battery are you using? Sounds to me like you are not using deep cycle battery.
You don't ground the battery or the TM to the boat. Glass or aluminum, you always connect the TM ground and positive to the battery. Either directly or using a high amperage connector.
How old is the battery? Are the cells full of distilled water? How has it been stored? How soon after use was it charged? Was the charge maintained?
Depending on the answers a one year old battery may be all done.
I would be suspicious of any advice these people give you.That is what I thought, but the local outdoor sporting shop told me to always ground the battery, and trolling motor.
They don't know what they are talking about. Have your battery load tested.That is what I thought, but the local outdoor sporting shop told me to always ground the battery, and trolling motor.
That is what I thought, but the local outdoor sporting shop told me to always ground the battery, and trolling motor.
Also, I have a 55# thrust Minn kota, and the last two times I have gone out fishing, the charge has only lasted 20-30 minutes. This is after giving a full charge. Could this be due to the lack of grounding, or is it something else? I have taken the boat out 5 times. The first 3 times I had no problems, and ran the motor for 3-5 hours each time. The last two times the charge has only lasted 20-30 minutes.
My unprofessional opinion is sounds like the seal in the tm is letting water into the motor housing and that is what is draining your battery so quickly. Water getting in there is causing the short.
I checked the motor housing, and it was full of water. I suspected a short, but did not think of water causing that. When taking the housing apart, I noticed there was a missing washer, and that the outer chamber wall for the housing was installed backwards.
I got everything dried out, reassembled, and tested it out, in the shop. It ran it for 30 minutes non-stop, full speed, with no sign of lost speed. Looks like I'll need to order some parts.