Battery question

[cassidyta]

How long should I expect a trolling motor battery to last on a day? I ran the motor for a solid 10 hours on Saturday. Due to wind, probably a solid 3 hours was on high (5). In the end, going on 5 in the wind was nothing more than a drift sock. I stopped losing ground, but I couldn't gain any. When I got home, the charger said that I had 9% life left.
I know that part of the issue is that my TM is only 26lbs thrust, but I also suspect that it is time to start shopping around for a new battery.
The battery (energizer) is about 2 years old sticker says 02/09 and it was in the boat when I got it.

[carolina-rig-01]

I am assuming it is a lead-acid battery? How is the water level? If the water gets too low it's pretty much game over for the battery. It's kind of like comparing apples to oranges because your trolling motor is a 12v and mine is a 36v but I have fished for 2 full days and part of another without charging my trolling motor batteries and I still had plenty of power when I was done (this was because we went to fish for a day at a lake where Britneys parents have a camper and a spur of the moment decision found us staying all weekend with them and I didn't take an extension cord with me for the charger). My honest guess is that your right and it's about time to start kicking the tires on a few batteries and get ready to buy one of them. I bought my last battery at our Interstate store and they tested the one that was bad for me. It showed it was good on a load test but it ended up having a dead cell and was only charging to a little over 7 volts. Maybe you can get it to a parts store and have them run a test or two on it for you.

[cassidyta]

Yes, a 12 volt lead acid. I wll check the water level in the morning, but it was good in January.
On most tourney days, I have about 50% life left when I get home. The past 2 10-12 hour days have kicked its butt.
It took it about 20 hours to get back to a full charge. That will hurt when I start my 2 day events.
The crank and Tm batteries are the same model so I might swap them before th enext time out and see if the issue persists. In the mean time, I will start looking at new batteries.

[Bob Smith]

You may want to consider running two batteries in parallel when fishing tournaments. Also, in addition to keeping a check on the water level, here's a couple of other things to consider. Use a battery maintainer to charge the batteries, a deep cycle battery likes the amperage very low and very slow, 2 amps then a constant maintainanence amperage of around 1/8amp. This will keep a new battery charged to high end of about 98%. Most Batteries work off the upper 15% of the battery charge, then after that they go quickly. So if you are running two batteries and keeping them fully charged you will last a lot longer and should be able to fish 10 hours on the upper 15%. Also when charging batteries in hot weather, pop the tops on the batteries this will keep the water from boiling out while you are charging. With the caps on the battery is like a pressure cooker in the hot weather.

[Embrey]

i wouldnt think a 26lb could draw that much,but ive never had one. i used to have a 55lb though and had two batteries in parallel and you could not kill them.

[nofearengineer]

Cass, one thing you should keep in mind is that a trolling motor, unless it is one of the newer digital ones, will draw almost the same amperage on speed 1 as it will on 5.

This is an inefficiency just built into the old speed coil design.

I'm assuming your 26lb'er is a 12V model? If so, 10 hours doesn't really raise any red flags for me. I would do what Bob said and hook another battery up in parallel with yours to essentially double your potential fishing time.

It will probably extend your battery life long term as well, as you won't be discharging them as deeply.

[cassidyta]

Thanks for the input guys.
I have noticed that the total drain of the batteries has gotten worse over time. Last year, 10 hours of trolling would put my battery down to about 40%, but now it was less than 10%.
I do run a trickle charge when I charge it.
I have been worried about running parallel because it meant putting a drain on my cranking battery as well, but it is something to consider for certain.

Are their any land mines to be worried about when running parallel? How does charging work when running this way? Will the alternator from the motor cause any issues?

I am sure I can find a wiring diagram on google for exactly how to do it. Heck there are only two connections so it can either go right or boom...lol

[nofearengineer]

Actually, I meant a 3-battery setup, Cass. One for cranking. Two in parallel for the TM. No connection between the two.

However, you would of course make sure that your charger can handle the increased load of the two batteries in parallel. Either that or use two separate chargers on them.

[Bob Smith]

Ditto what Nofear said. You can actually buy a good 3 bank distributed amp charger/maintainer for around $150. This would save a lot of head aches. As for wiring the parallel it is exactly as it sounds, jump the positive to positive and the negative to negative. Series, on the other hand, would be the negative of one battery to your trolling motor and the positive of the other battery to the trolling motor, with a jumper from the negative (of the battery supplying the positive to the trolling motor) to the positive (of the battery supplying the negative to the trolling motor), this generates a 24 volt system full time.
Many years ago, back home in Texas on Lake Conroe, before the age of 24 volt and 36 volt systems we would wire our batteries 24 volt and boost the heck out of 12 volt trolling motors. They would last for quite a while but would eventually burn out. In the meantime we chopped a lot of hydrilla with those improvised 24 volt trolling motors!

[nofearengineer]

LOL, Bob.

Those things would be running twice as fast as they were supposed to. No wonder they burned up!

[cassidyta]

Okay, it is all making sense. I will need to make some boat mods to pull off a 3rd battery. Currently, I only have enough room for both removable gas tanks and 2 batteries. If I were to add a 3rd, I think it would mean putting the two TM batteries under my front deck. This of course would mean a need to add the charger/maintainer that Bob mentioned. And of course, while I have the front deck off, I might as well upgrade the TM since I need the deck off to properly install it. Heck, maybe I should go ahead and install the lighting too. I foresee my inital battery purchase becoming a more expensive project before all is said and done.

[nofearengineer]

Originally Posted by cassidyta

Okay, it is all making sense. I will need to make some boat mods to pull off a 3rd battery. Currently, I only have enough room for both removable gas tanks and 2 batteries. If I were to add a 3rd, I think it would mean putting the two TM batteries under my front deck. This of course would mean a need to add the charger/maintainer that Bob mentioned. And of course, while I have the front deck off, I might as well upgrade the TM since I need the deck off to properly install it. Heck, maybe I should go ahead and install the lighting too. I foresee my inital battery purchase becoming a more expensive project before all is said and done.

LMAO...welcome to my world, Cass!

While looking at an alarm system, I found out that a Bluewater LED package can be tied into it. Uh oh....

[Embrey]

Originally Posted by cassidyta

Okay, it is all making sense. I will need to make some boat mods to pull off a 3rd battery. Currently, I only have enough room for both removable gas tanks and 2 batteries. If I were to add a 3rd, I think it would mean putting the two TM batteries under my front deck. This of course would mean a need to add the charger/maintainer that Bob mentioned. And of course, while I have the front deck off, I might as well upgrade the TM since I need the deck off to properly install it. Heck, maybe I should go ahead and install the lighting too. I foresee my inital battery purchase becoming a more expensive project before all is said and done.

if you have a 2 bank charger,then you can still use it. hooking to one of the trolling motor batteries is the came as hooking to them both when they are connected in 12v. just takes longer to charge. ive been doing that for a couple years on mine since my 3rd channel burnt out.

[nofearengineer]

Originally Posted by Embrey

if you have a 2 bank charger,then you can still use it. hooking to one of the trolling motor batteries is the came as hooking to them both when they are connected in 12v. just takes longer to charge. ive been doing that for a couple years on mine since my 3rd channel burnt out.

Just make sure the charger can handle twice the charging rate it's been doing prior to paralleling the batteries. Two batteries in parallel have half the resistance of a single battery.

[Embrey]

i wasnt real sure how or if that could even matter, so i just did it...lol.

[cassidyta]

Currently, I have a protable walmart charger. So I would want to upgrade to a 3 bank when I do it.
That being said, I have never needed to charge the cranking battery. I did put the charger on it once and it read 98%.

[lilmule]

10 hrs your doing good with a 12v,lack of ooph in the wind is the reason many of us go to 24 v and higher thrust
What was said prior should take care of immediate problems providng 26 pds is enough thrust.
Lot is dependent upon where used,26 pds you would always go backwards on ky lake out on the main.

[Captmikestarrett]

All good advise..I can only add three items.
1. Use distilled water to top battery.
2. Clean all connections good.
3. Start charging the minute you get home.

Capt Mike

[cassidyta]

Thanks Capt.
I am good on all 3 to date.

[carolina-rig-01]

Also, this isn't part of your problem I'm sure but it's still good advice. Use a good battery terminal cleaner and then spray the terminals good with a terminal protector. This will keep them free of corrosion, but make sure all your leads are hooked up before using the protector because you don't want it between the terminal and your connections.

[cassidyta]

Well, in the end, the battery WAS low on water. I am not sure how or why since I checked it December/January. I can only guess that it had something to do with our tripple digit temps in Dec.
I topped it off and will see what happens.
Checking the water levels is now on my monthly checklist

[Embrey]

hmm...i havent ever had to add water to any batery for some reason. im on 3-4 yrs now without a drop. i check about every year, but theyre always full.

[nofearengineer]

Originally Posted by Embrey

hmm...i havent ever had to add water to any batery for some reason. im on 3-4 yrs now without a drop. i check about every year, but theyre always full.

Smart chargers are awesome, huh?

The old chargers really sucked. They had their uses, like occasionally equalizing a battery, but they were just too high voltage. Every time you "bubble" a battery, you're losing water (via hydrogen and oxygen loss).

Modern chargers can hold a battery just above full voltage, but not high enough to cause an overcharge and bubbling.