Trolling Motor Battery

[Ben Kobrin]

I recently got a trolling motor for my pontoon boat and now I'm on the hunt for a battery. In looking around it looks like I'm going to have to spend about $100 and it will end up weighing about 25lbs. For those of you that have already gone through this research, does this sound right? I know they come bigger/stronger, but for my pontoon I think I can get away with the minimum for now. Can anyone pass along a brand reccomendation for me? I'm hoping to get powered up for this weekends world famous 1 Fly Tournament!

One last thing...registering it with the DMV...really important or just kinda important?

-Ben

[Dabalone]

Wall Mart sells a decent deep cycle battery at a reasonable price, my son and I have them in our boats.

[nightgoat]

One last thing...registering it with the DMV...really important or just kinda important?
-Ben

Well I'm not sure what the fine is for not registering, but it was worth the $20 it cost to register mine for two years to not have to worry about it.

[Scott V]

All I can say is get a deep cycle, my battery is a heavy mother but it is worth it in the long run. It goes forever and deep cycles are just stronger batteries. As for registering, yes you are suppose, not I haven't nor have I been stopped. But I assume I will eventually if I do not register it.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Car type lead/acid batteries come in Group 24, 27 and 30 I believe.

These are all pretty heavy.

Then you have "starting" batteries and "deep cycle".

You need "deep cycle".

I would go to or call "Battery Bill's" in Sacramento and run it by them.

You can also call or go by "Sunny's Electic".

[pvsprme]

I have a group 22 AGM like the one below. I got it from a local battery distributor for much less than C's price, $95. It weighs 38#. AGM's can be mounted upside down or sideways as they are sealed. Only about 4 companies manufacturing batteries due to environmental reg's. This one's an East Penn. Some very good info on their website.

http://www.cabelas.com/p-0023033016446a.shtml

I also got the battery box to carry it in. Built-in circuit breaker. Strap is weak, I replaced it with a cam strap and all is good.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0001116014210a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntt=Battery+Box&Ntk=Product_liberal&sort=all&Go.y=11&_D%3AhasJS=+&N=0&_D%3Asort=+&Nty=1&hasJS=true&Go.x=12&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form1&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1

You will want an "intelligent charger" if you go with an AGM or Optima-type battery. I got a B&D for about $100 at WalMart, great for the RV as well. You'd be able to use a smaller unit than this, but I'd want at least a 20 amp max. the important thing is it must "float"; automatically reduce the charge as it comes up. Lengthens the life of the battery.

http://www.blackanddecker.com/ProductGuide/Product-Details.aspx?ProductID=15580

The battery lasts me 5-6 hrs, recharges in an hour or less. A 25# battery would not give me enough time, IMHO, but I'd love to be wrong on this. Weight rules!
I'm using a #36 lb motor on a 10'6" Skykomish Sunrise.

[Reno Flytyer]

PVSPRME has given you some great advice with regard to both the battery, and equally important IMNSHO, the charger.
RFT

[briansII]

Double ditto on what pvsprme said. Just like to add. When you're done for the day/weekend, put your deep cycle battery back on a charge that day. Don't let it sit until the next time you plan to use it. Charging right away, extends the life of the battery.

I run a 35, 40, or 55lb thrust motor on my toon. I like the bigger motor to chop through the weeds. :-)

briansII

[Ben Kobrin]

Here's what I ended up with...

First I hit up Wally World for a group 24 marine deep cycle/starting battery. This was explained to me as a do-it-all kind of battery that isn't ideal for anything but pretty good for everything (kinda like a 9 foot 5 weight). This battery has a 105 reserve capacity (which is supposed to be the important number for deep cycle applications). This ran me $65 plus another $9 because I wasn't trading in another battery. Also, the Walmart marine batteries come standard with NO WARRANTY. How nice.

I wasn't thrilled with the lack of warranty so I kept looking around. I think I found what I am looking for at Kragen. I bought their group 24 marine battery which is a dedicated deep cycle, not a combo. The reserve capacity on this one is 140 and it comes with a 2 year pro-rated warranty. $69 plus $10 for not trading in another battery. I'm about to head back out to Walmart and return the original battery.

I bought the standard marine battery box and I have a Minn Kota portable 3-stage charger. I don't know much about the charger, but I'm assuming that since it is made by Minn Kota it should be appropriate for deep cycle charging.

Thanks to all who have given me their thoughts! Once I figure out how to mount everything on my pontoon I'll post some pictures in case there are others looking to motorize.


-Ben

[michaeln]

I think I found what I am looking for at Kragen. I bought their group 24 marine battery which is a dedicated deep cycle, not a combo. The reserve capacity on this one is 140 and it comes with a 2 year pro-rated warranty. $69 plus $10 for not trading in another battery.

I have that one in my 8' pram. When I was at Baum lake last month it worked great with my 30lb thrust Minn-Kota. It had plenty of capacity for a day's fishing, and I charged it each night at the motel (took about 4 hours to recharge it with the 6 amp charger I brought). That indicates to me that it wasn't really very discharged, and that it should run my boat for a good long time.

[Ben Kobrin]

I have that one in my 8' pram. When I was at Baum lake last month it worked great with my 30lb thrust Minn-Kota. It had plenty of capacity for a day's fishing, and I charged it each night at the motel (took about 4 hours to recharge it with the 6 amp charger I brought). That indicates to me that it wasn't really very discharged, and that it should run my boat for a good long time.

That's great to hear. I've also got the 30lb Minn Kota and while my pontoon is 12 feet long, it's very light so I'm hopefull that I won't be underpowered.

[michaeln]

I think it depends a lot on how you use it. I certainly didn't have it running all day. At Baum there is a steady current running through it, so when I wanted to go downcurrent I either rowed or drifted with occasional spurts from the motor for corrections. I also spend a lot of time anchored and casting.

Further, the drain on the battery goes way up when you use full power, so I don't use full power that often (heck, the little pram really scoots on full) because I am usually not in a big hurry when I'm fishing.

[Ed Wahl]

Hey Woolybugger and Michael, I was in the same boat as you(figuratively speaking) until I decided to see just what it would take to drain my battery by using it.

I've got the cheapest 24 deep cycle marine Wal-mart has, bought it 2 years ago.

Last summer I dropped my pram, a pretty heavy Metalhead, in the American River at Discovery Park. The mouth of the American.

I ran it on high speed upstream expecting at any time after about 15 minutes to start losing power.

Well, after about 2.5 hours of pushing against the current at high speed I came to Last Chance Riffle and decided that was far enough. No power loss that I could tell.

I took a siesta then headed back down, fishing and again, running at full speed. At the lower end of the river I was moving a bit slower, but not too bad. Plenty of push for maneuvering around the hundreds of boats anchored down there.


Scott and I ran from Westlake Landing Park up the Moke and into Sycamore Slough using electrics once. Except for huge wakes from big boats we had no issues.

In normal fishing such as Baum, or the smaller lakes like 'Seco, you'll never need to worry about conserving power.

Just charge them up when you get home. I've got an old charger built for car batteries, but it's got a setting for a 2 amp charge. So far no problemo.

Ed

[Frank Alessio]

The more you run them down before recharging the better.... Frank

[Dabalone]

As far as warranties on batteries my experience has been they will go bad the first or second month after the warranty expires, damn things must have self destruct timers in them. But that is auto batteries, warranty on a deep cycle battery is probably a good thing since they are drained and recharged over and over. If not taken care of properly they will go bad prematurely.

Another point related to all this is your trolling motor. Always get the motor with the built in Maximiser, if it costs a little more its worth it, adds much more mileage out of a charge. Not sure if Motor Guide has the same thing and it may be standard on all Minn Kota's now, if not I would certainly get one with it.