trolling motor and battery

[igotjesus88]

hello,

Im new to the whole trolling motor and battery thing and was wondering, if i have a 27DC group everstart marine battery (brand new) and a minn kota 17lb thrust trolling motor how long will it last? its actually on a 5 person paddle boat and with me on it.. i know it depends on the weight and how fast you go but can anyone give me a rough estimate? where can i get a battery gauge without ordering online?


thx in advance for any advice!

 

[bassman284]

Re: trolling motor and battery

Well, let's go with the battery guage first. The link below is to the Minn Kota tester which I think is the hot setup and reasonable cost.

http://store.minnkotamotors.com/products/418929/Digital_Battery_Meter

I have the older version of this that only has the LED's, not the LCD voltage display. Search says that Bass Pro, Cabelas, ****'s, and even Sears (?) has them. I can't remember where I got mine, but think it was Gander Mountain. Or Walmart.

There are guys here (who will probably be along later) who can tell you what amperage that motor draws and give you a fair idea of run time a max speed. Best I can do is say that I used to have a 28lb Minn Kota on a 14 ft jon boat using group 27 batteries and my brother and I (approx 250lb each) would generally go around 5 hours per outing with no noticeable fall off in performance. Never took the battery below 50% per the LEDs.

Now obviously the majority of this was not at max speed, usually at 2 or 3 while casting for bass. Your mileage may vary. General rule of thumb would be about 2 hours at maximum speed, but depends on the current draw of the troller.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: trolling motor and battery

Without the RC (reserve minutes capacity) numbers off the tag on the battery we can't calculate the run time but we can take a swag at it. That battery very likely is rated at about 175 minutes @ 23 amp draw. What that means is the battery can deliver 23 amps for about 175 minutes (or a tick under 3 hours) before it can no longer deliver 23 amps. Your trolling motor will draw about 17 - 20 amps at its fastest speed so you you can expect it will run about 2.5 - 3 hours maximum -- again at the fastest speed. Some of the older motors use simple resistors to control speed so they waste energy in the form of heat. This also means the run time will likely be close to the same regardless what speed you are running. It all depends on the construction of the speed control circuitry.