Avg trolling life w/ 24v Minnkota/Optima

[Kokaneeranger]

Good day gents, I have a 17.5 Crstliner SuperHawk, a 24v Minnkota Terrova (80lbs) and 2 brand new Optima blue top Batteries serving the trolling motor. The fist time saw me get about 5 hrs on my bank of batteries. I did not play the radio, did not charge a cell phone, the livewell did cycle from time to time and I had about 10-15 km winds. I trolled all over the lake and at the end of the day (5hrs) my battery indicator on the trolling motor showed 1 light! Is this typical? I read all the reviews about these batteries and rolled the dice, put my money down, and now I'm disappointed. So what trolling time do you boys get on a 24v system.

[EZM]

Your 24v system, using the blue tops, if it is indeed properly wired up as a 24v system, should give you 7-8 hours of steady use in light to moderate conditions. I run a 24v 80lb Terrova on my 18.5 Lund Tyee (a heavy deep vee boat) and that would be typical for me.

The battery size, of course, AmpHrs, plays a part, but if I'm not mistaken the blue tops have decent capacity - so 5 hours seems pretty low to me.

If you are in moderate to heavy wind/chop and trolling at 3 mph, making lots of turns, running at 7-9 as setting - maybe 5 hrs. is typical.

On a calm day - my batteries can go for 10-11 hours.

On another note - if you are wired up properly as a 24v system dedicated to the trolling motor, your radio, cigarette charger for cell phone, etc... all use 12v and should be drawing off your cranking battery (which is 12v) and charged from the motor - so this should not impact the life of your trolling batteries as these circuits should be completely independent of each other.

[Kokaneeranger]

Thanks EZM, Have you found a decent alternative to pulling your boat out and charging your batteries ? What about leaving a small solar panel as a trickle charger. Has anyone had luck with this or any other setup?

[Elkaholic338]

Thanks EZM, Have you found a decent alternative to pulling your boat out and charging your batteries ? What about leaving a small solar panel as a trickle charger. Has anyone had luck with this or any other setup?

I have a small solar panel that I connect to my trolling motor batteries when it is sunny, and it will extend the life of the batteries by an hour or so, but cannot produce enough juice to actually charge them back up once they are down.
I have used a small gen set, like a 1000 watt or so that I can just put right in the boat at the end of the day to recharge the trolling motor batteries in situations that I was not able to plug the 4 bank charger into regular power, but I always pull the boat at the end of the day anyway. If you are leaving it in the lake for the night, I don't know if you would want to leave a gen set in it if it is out of sight, as these things tend to grow legs.

I can understand the convenience of leaving it in the lake, but not sure of how you would go about charging it, unless you brought the gen set to it and then hung around until it was done.

if you have a good 3 or 4 bank charger, it should not take all that long to charge back up, but still a couple of hours.

JMO.

also 5 hours seems low for time on those batteries, as your boat is not that large, and with an 80 lb thrust, it should run all day on those batteries, unless you are trying to run at 7 to 10 speed the whole time, which should pull that boat at 2-3 MPH, and you could just run with the Gas motor.

[Jamie Black R/T]

Thanks EZM, Have you found a decent alternative to pulling your boat out and charging your batteries ? What about leaving a small solar panel as a trickle charger. Has anyone had luck with this or any other setup?

They wont charge fast enough. Minn kota makes an alternator charger also but it doesnt replenish the batteries fast enough to be worth it.

A quality on board charger is the only way to go.

[EZM]

I have a on board charger with multiple banks ( 4 bank up front and 2 bank at rear ) and just plug them in when on a long trip at the campsite (or into the cabin) when I pull my boat out at night.

As others mentioned the alternator charger, a solar panel etc... won't really keep up .... so there is no point.

If I was going to go somewhere with no electricity, I'd install all 4 batteries, and maybe the generator would top me up - but I haven't ever needed to do this.

I have room for 4 batteries ( 2 sets of 2 12v batteries running on a 24v system) up front but am only using one set up front at the moment as there are very very few days I need to charge my batteries on the water or risk running out of juice.

If it's choppy, I'm trolling using gas. My electric is basically only used for super slow/stealth trolling for walleyes or for spot locking mostly although I will do a few runs with the electric trolling motor along stored paths.

It's pretty rare for me to need to use it all day long at full power. I have done it a few times, but it's not often.

[Kokaneeranger]

Thanks again guys

[old dog]

Great advise like usual EZM

[wellpastcold]

There are many batteries available that far outshine Optimas. As unfortunate as it is, you will eventually replace them due to frustration. Comparatively speaking they have a mediocre amp hour rating.

[cube]

Good day gents, I have a 17.5 Crstliner SuperHawk, a 24v Minnkota Terrova (80lbs) and 2 brand new Optima blue top Batteries serving the trolling motor. The fist time saw me get about 5 hrs on my bank of batteries. I did not play the radio, did not charge a cell phone, the livewell did cycle from time to time and I had about 10-15 km winds. I trolled all over the lake and at the end of the day (5hrs) my battery indicator on the trolling motor showed 1 light! Is this typical? I read all the reviews about these batteries and rolled the dice, put my money down, and now I'm disappointed. So what trolling time do you boys get on a 24v system.

I get about 6 hrs with out much wind so I would say 5 hours with wind is what you can expect. Solar is only good if you have extra batteries back at camp charging and every thing set up perfect (no clouds, someone to move solar panels to point directly at sun all the time, multiple panels etc etc.)

The minnkota alternator charging is only good if you have to make long runs with the main motor. This does not happen very often here so it is of limited value (probably good on the great lakes etc.).

Getting a small gas generator will certainly help with your problem.

Please note it does take a long time (like 6 hrs) to fully charge your batteries and deep discharging like your doing will limit your battery life.

For the factors mentioned above a gas kicker is the real answer to your problems. They use little gas, can troll at sub 0.5 mph for days and get you home if the main engine fails.

I have both a 24V terrova and a gas kicker and use the kicker 99% of the time. My opinion about the electrics are they are great at positioning and boat control but never should have been called trolling motors.

Certainly if you want to troll with an electric get a 36 volt system and make sure you have access to electrical at the campsite. (They won't let you run the generator after quite time and you need to recharge those batteries as soon as you get off the water if you want them to last).

At least this has been my experience.

[EZM]

I once read (maybe on Walleye Central) that some great lakes guys run the gas kicker to propel the boat in a straight line (keep the gas kicker pointed straight) and use the bow mount trolling motor (on autopilot) to follow the contours. These guys reported doubling the battery life doing it this way.

I did try it myself, and it does work, but the precision is not perfect. The electric motor by itself is more accurate, but if you don't need precision, this would definitely work.

[Mudslide]

If you look at the design of the optimas you will notice the have round cells in a rectangular format. That means they are physically smaller than a regular battery that uses the traditional straight plate design. That's why they have less Amp hrs and less run time. Optima claims their design is better for various reasons but batteries are restricted the size of the plates. AGM (Absorbed Glass Matt) batteries will give you about double the amount of charge/discharge cycles and they can be mounted on their side if needed, but they do not give you any more run time on the water. If you need more run time, you need bigger batteries. Your best bang for buck seems to be regular deep cycle batteries from COSTCO size 27. If you boat will fit a larger batteries go bigger (29 or 31s) but I don't think COSTCO has the larger formats.

[badger]

Optimas are more tolerant to deep discharge and vibration which makes them good for boats. They have smaller AH capacity which is the trade off. If you want more run time, larger capacity batteries are the only choice and even then they cannot be run down to flat. Full discharge will reduce the capacity for future discharge cycles until you are back at low run times and replacing again. General practice is to not run below 40% of rated AH on discharge.

[Nova]

I once read (maybe on Walleye Central) that some great lakes guys run the gas kicker to propel the boat in a straight line (keep the gas kicker pointed straight) and use the bow mount trolling motor (on autopilot) to follow the contours. These guys reported doubling the battery life doing it this way.

I did try it myself, and it does work, but the precision is not perfect. The electric motor by itself is more accurate, but if you don't need precision, this would definitely work.

I've done this with my big motor a few times. Not the perfect solution, but it does work.

I've got a 55 pound PD V2 on my 1650 Fish Hawk. I can get in the are of 6-8 hours on a pair of Ac Delco M29MF. There's no doubt, when I upgrade boats I will be getting a kicker. Trolling motors are great and all, but I often go 4 or 5 days without access to power. I contemplated upgrading to a 24v system but didn't think I'd gain a lot for the money. I've added a second pair of batteries with a 2 bank selector switch. I also bought a 2000w inverter generator so I could even charge one bank while on the water if I really needed to.

[EZM]

I've done this with my big motor a few times. Not the perfect solution, but it does work.

I've got a 55 pound PD V2 on my 1650 Fish Hawk. I can get in the are of 6-8 hours on a pair of Ac Delco M29MF. There's no doubt, when I upgrade boats I will be getting a kicker. Trolling motors are great and all, but I often go 4 or 5 days without access to power. I contemplated upgrading to a 24v system but didn't think I'd gain a lot for the money. I've added a second pair of batteries with a 2 bank selector switch. I also bought a 2000w inverter generator so I could even charge one bank while on the water if I really needed to.

I'm not an expert but I'm pretty certain a 24v set up (two 12v batteries wired in series) is more efficient compared to two 12v batteries wired in parallel running at 12v.

Jet is the guy to ask on this forum. He will likely know.

The other consideration is that a 24v motor will give you better thrust and likely not have to work as hard giving you better boat control and potentially longer battery life.

I'm not sure if it's a huge gain, but I would consider it for sure.

[Okotokian]

I once read (maybe on Walleye Central) that some great lakes guys run the gas kicker to propel the boat in a straight line (keep the gas kicker pointed straight) and use the bow mount trolling motor (on autopilot) to follow the contours. These guys reported doubling the battery life doing it this way.

I did try it myself, and it does work, but the precision is not perfect. The electric motor by itself is more accurate, but if you don't need precision, this would definitely work.

Why wouldn't you just use the kicker alone and steer it instead of the electric?

I have both as well (just bought) and was thinking I'd just use the electric for holding myself in place, minor moves, etc, not take long trolling runs with it. Am I missing something?

[Jamie Black R/T]

Why wouldn't you just use the kicker alone and steer it instead of the electric?

I have both as well (just bought) and was thinking I'd just use the electric for holding myself in place, minor moves, etc, not take long trolling runs with it. Am I missing something?

With the ipilot feature the boat would follow a saved track or set of waypoints allowing you to fish without have to control the boat.

[cube]

Why wouldn't you just use the kicker alone and steer it instead of the electric?

I have both as well (just bought) and was thinking I'd just use the electric for holding myself in place, minor moves, etc, not take long trolling runs with it. Am I missing something?

Yes the electric is very good for the minor moves and holding in place etc. that you bought your motor for.

What EZM was bringing up is that in side wind that can blow your front end around faster than you can correct with the kicker and potentially tangle your lines, the electric with auto steering can minimise this. ie both ends of the boat keep going in the same direction.

The other time the kicker is used with the electric is again in the wind when you need to save battery going into a brisk wind esp. Going into a stiff wind can sap your batteries pretty fast.

So using them in combination can be good for both side and head winds. Tail winds I tend to just drift and correct with the electric if necessary.