minn kota fortrex loud & eats batteries

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bassz21
Posts: 140
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 10:24 am

minn kota fortrex loud & eats batteries

Post by bassz21 »

wondering what could cause it to be loud its loud on all settings tried a new prop cleaned shaft that didnt work cant really bed fish they hear me comin gotta push pole in :(, and my batteries are not lasting at all less than or right about a year old, my ranger charger says all good, im going to give jim lambert a call and see what he says and take it to him, but wanted to see what you guys think.
csilva
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Jul 20, 2008 4:52 am

Re: minn kota fortrex loud & eats batteries

Post by csilva »

I love mine, it is not any louder than any other trolling motor I've had and my MK batteries are 9 years old. Best batteries I've ever had. The batteries that came new in my boat in 2003 lasted one year.
JLS (Jay Liu's Service)
Posts: 87
Joined: Sun May 08, 2005 7:53 am

Re: minn kota fortrex loud & eats batteries

Post by JLS (Jay Liu's Service) »

If your motor is noisy, you probably have a front bearing going bad. :D :D As for your batteries, you need to do a little testing you can follow the directions that I put here.

Jay Liu's Tip of the Month
Deep Cycle Battery Care and Testing

I feel that writing about each battery company on their quality is not as important as writing about care you give your battery. It’s important to talk about battery maintenance and the ability to test the battery so you will be able to prevent any battery problems while fishing.
#1. Make sure all battery cable connections are tight and clean of corrosion.
#2. Check the water level. Make sure the plates are covered by at least 1/8 inch over the plates and do not fill it to the top of the case. Leave the water at least 1/4 inch from the top. This will leave space for the water to expand while charging. It is best to check the water when the battery is warm and the water has expanded, so when you fill it to the proper height it won’t boil over. It is not necessary to remove your battery caps when charging.
#3. Always charge your battery as soon as you get back from fishing. Do not store your batteries below 90% of charge. It will shorten your battery life.
#4. Periodic battery testing is a must. Batteries used with trolling motors are different from automobile batteries. They are deep cycle batteries. Many of my customers tell me that when they were having trolling motor battery trouble, they took their battery back to the store to have it tested. It was tested by attaching a cold cranking AMP Tester to it and then declared OK. This is not the way to test a deep cycle battery. The best way to test a battery is as follows:
1) You must know the Ampere-hour rating of your battery (most group 27 batteries are rated at 105 Ampere-hour)
2) The battery must be fully charged and each cell tested with a Hydrometer, making sure all cells read 1275 or better and do not vary more then 10 points. If one cell is low (more then 10 points) then your battery is bad.
3) You will have to get some head lamps and measure the Amp draw, then hook them up to the battery and take a gravity reading every hour and record the Hydrometer readings, (it should drop evenly between cells) for as many hours that it takes to add to 100 amps.
For instance;
Ten headlamps draw 10 Amps (10 Amps X 10 hours = 100 Amps).
Twenty headlamps draw 5 Amps (5 Amps X 20 hours = 100 Amps).
The gravity reading should not vary more than 10 points from cell to cell while doing this test. If they vary, the low reading cell is weak and you should replace your battery unless you don’t mind rowing your boat.
99% of us will never test our batteries if we have to go through all of the #3 step so an easier way to do this test is to make sure your battery is fully charged; test the battery using the step #2; and then go fishing. When you get home, and BEFORE you charge the battery, check each cell with the Hydrometer. Your readings will be lower than your previous reading but each cell should not vary more than 10 points from each other. If they vary more than 10 point that cell is bad.
#5. When there is more then one battery (series or parallel) all batteries should be the same size and must be replaced at the same time for better performance. :D :D

Jay Liu’s Service
Trolling Motor Repair
7752 Pit Road
Redding, CA 96001
(530) 246-8051
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minnkotaman
Posts: 163
Joined: Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:04 pm
Location: SAN RAMON

Re: minn kota fortrex loud & eats batteries

Post by minnkotaman »

Lambert here,
bring it, you know i can have it fixed in an hour or less
Jim l
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