trolling motor problems

basslayer · Post by **basslayer** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 8:07 pm

my trolling motor is running my batteries low after only 6 hours of fishing. I had the batteries checked and they came back perfect. Ive fished for two days on the delta and still had plenty of juice. The motor is minnkota maxxum pro 80 that is one year old. what else should I check before I send the motor in.

Marty · Post by **Marty** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 8:13 pm

Check your charger, you may not be getting a full charge â€“ it happened to me.

JLS (Jay Liu's Service) · Mon Sep 28, 2009 3:37 am

Basslayer, the Min Kota Max Pro 80 will draw around 45 amps on high. You can draw your batteries down in about 6 hours depending on the size of your batteries. I recommend that you use group 31 batteries, also make sure that your batteries are fully charged. The best way to test them after charging is to use a hydrometer. Load testing is not the way to test a deep cycle batteries. Hope this info helps.
JLS (Jay Liuâ€™s Service) trolling motor repair.

Phil · Post by **Phil** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 5:10 am

I would think batteries. it seems rare that the trolling motor would be the culpret. The deep cycle batteries are made to leave the lights on and not put a load on them ; as in a crank starter battery that recovers promptly. I also have found once my deep cycles are drained which they are made to do, it takes me a couple days to recover them on slow charger 2 amps, a fast charge higher amperage does a deep cycle no good. It seems deep cycles have no recovery time and just go down and down and down, yet are made to do so. Showing 12 volts on a deep cycle voltmeter, means very little I have found. +1 on Jays comment. Each cell can be different, and can happen overnight.

my .02

JIGS

basslayer · Post by **basslayer** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 6:02 am

They are interstate batteries. I took them to a interstate factory store. He used the meter and he load tested them. They passed with a 100%. All the connections are clean. Could one of the inline breakers be going bad. I had the same setup on my last boat and never had a problem. This happend on wendsday, charged them, happend again 2 days later on friday, then again on saturday(tourny day). Ive noticed that the motor is not as quiet also. Ive pulled the prop and all is good.

Toad · Post by **Toad** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 6:37 am

I went through the same thing with interstate batteries. Had Interstate check the batteries and they said they were good. Replaced the OBC and still had the problem. Had Interstate check the batteries again and still all good. Replaced the trolling motor, and continued to have the problem, so I replaced the wires running from the batteries to the trolling motor. Still the same! Took the batteries to Interstate one more time and they checked out good with them. Replaced the batteries and no more problems. This process took several months and with the new batteries I have been going strong ever since. Lesson learned!

basslayer · Post by **basslayer** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 2:12 pm

my charger is for two batteries but only has one set of lights. I put seperate chargers on the two batteries so I can get a better idea of the status of each battery. Im going to borrow my friends new batteries this weekend and see how that works also.

Flippinjigs · Post by **Flippinjigs** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 9:47 pm

You shouldn't run your batteries for two days without charging them after each use. They should be charged right away once your done for the day. They can build up a resistance to a complete charge even though they may indicate fully charged with a ohm/volt meter.

A battery hydrometer sould be used to check the electrolite in each cell to ensure the speciific gravity is in the charged range. A cell could be bad and your motor would still operate at lower discharge rate. If you feel you have a problem use the hydrometer. Always keep the lead plates covered with distilled water.

I just replaced two batteries in my boat because the lead plates must of had a bad connection in the battery case. They wouldn't fully charge. Ohm Volt meter read 13 volts but the hydrometer told a different story.

Good Fishin