Issues with 24 volt charging system H-E-L-P !

OK here goes, I have two new (last fall) trolling motor batteries for my 24 volt system. They are from Batteries plus, I checked the batteries for bad cells and they are both good, taking and holding a charge. The batteries are hooked to the charger and the negative of one battery is hooked to the positive of the other to create 24 volts. I have a Minkota foot pedal trolling motor. 72 pound thrust. I have a Guest model 2613 15 amp charger (5a+5a+5a) 3 0utputs- 3 stage on board charger. The problem here is I get about three hours of continous use before my batteries puke. I troll around 1.5-2.0 mph, pushing my 16′ Crestliner. This problem is ongoing and I am sick of it. Trips cut short because I have no juice. For the mercy and love of God someone please help me!!!!!

What size are the batteries?
Are the batteries fully charged?
I am running a 24 volt system, battery size 27’s, on a 16.5 Alumacraft and can run for days on a lake, never tried multi-days on a river.

The one is a Werker – 575 cold cranking amps, the other is a Trojan deep cycle. It dosent have amps listed on this one

The Werker is a 27 series the Trojan dosen’t say…

When you say you checked for bad cells…did Batteries Plus check them or you? The batteries need to be load tested. Many times they will check as good but after a comprehensive load test, they may turn up as having a marginal cell or two (even new batteries). I run two 27 series Everstart Batteries and can usually get a day or two of heavy usage.

They should check them for free.

Did you install a disconnect switch on the jumper between the bateries?
Do you have wires (+ & -) going to each battery from separate banks on the charger?
From what you have described, I believe that you have the charger set up as you would for running the two 12V batteries in series. For a 24V system, in which you want to charge the two 12V bateries separately, you need to disconnect the jumper between the two 12V batteries that are set up to produce 24V.
Good luck
cheers

Actually, with the Guest and Dual-Pro chargers, you do not need to remove the jumper to charge. They are meant to charge with the jumper in place.

It appears from your information that you are only using one deep cycle and one cranking, so you are probably killing the cranking battery within an hour or so, and then just running on a single deep cycle at 12v.

You MUST have deep cycle batteries, and it is best if they are matched.

Glenn

Glenn is correct on both counts. You do not have to disconnect the jumper wire when charging. When it comes to batteries for a 24volt system, you want matching deep cycle batteries. When my system is not performing, I replace both batteries. One good battery and on weak one will adversely effect the performance.

are you running three batteries,2 for the trolling motor and 1 cranking ? my 3 bank charger has 1 bank labeled cranking battery. are the other two hooked up to both positives and negatives?

It has a seperate wiring and bank for the starting battery, I will start by replacing both battery’s with matching deep cycle battery’s. Run and charge them a few times and see were my preformance is. After that I guess I’ll look at replacing the charger itself if I dont see the preformance dramatically improve. Thank You guy’s for the help and info, any more ideas or help will be very welcome, it sure is nice having all this brain power and knowledge at my disposal, IDA rocks!

My boss just had this problem and the is a breaker that is hooked up to both batteries and and you just have to reset it and know it is working fine. He had this happen for 1 1/2 and we figured it out that the is a little breaker there and you have to reset it. ON his it was a little grey box hooked up to the wires about 2inches by 1 inch in size with a little black reset deal on the side.

If you have a voltmeter measure across each battery terminal when the charger is charging. It should be around 13.5 volts or better for each bank when charging. If less than 12.5V you have a dead bank.

I think Glenn has the answer tho….you can’t use a starting battery and deep cell as your 24v system.

I think that if the breaker was tripped he would not be
getting any run time at all.
At least he shouldn’t be if the breaker is installed
correctly.

also is your charger showing a full charge? green lights or partial charge red and green, at 5 amps per bank the recovery time will be overnight vs 3 to 4 hours for a 15 amp per bank charger

I had the same problem and went and bought new batteries. Turned out it was my onboard charger was junk. It was less than two years old too

The charger is charging, they were drained yesterday and full charged today, I was getting about 14 amps per battery when I checked them after charging, I went and bought two Wally-world Maxx29 batterys, I was gonna go out and give them a work out today but looks like some heavy rain is moving in, I am a more than a little dissapointed in Batterys Plus, those guys new my application and should have enough knowledge to know not to sell me two diiferent battery’s for my system, I had my boat with me when they were checking my battery’s last fall…..

Always replace your trolling motor batteries at the same time and use the same battery. I have a 24 volt PD 65#. I can run it full blast for 12 plus hours. I troll with them a lot.

I second the fuse/breaker then load test opinion.

bigpike.. you should have great results with those group 29 wally world batteries. If they drain quick, or drain quick after recharging, you have a wiring issue, or a trolling motor issue.

Any battery with some charge is going to show nearly 14V fresh off the charger.. you should have a battery energy guage around to be sure the batteries are fully charged.

If you have one battery partially charged, and the otherfully charged, the battery juice is going to go quick when the lesser charged battery loses voltage because the majority of the load will be on the better charged battery.

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It appears from your information that you are only using one deep cycle and one cranking, so you are probably killing the cranking battery within an hour or so, and then just running on a single deep cycle at 12v.

You MUST have deep cycle batteries, and it is best if they are matched.

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Bigpike – nice topic… now I need to check my trolling batteries!

Glenn – I bought my boat new in ’05 from a local dealer and I upgraded to a 24v MinnKota trolling system (the boat came ‘standard’ with a 12v). I don’t seem to be getting the duration I should be from a charge. If the boat dealer put in one deep-cycle and one cranking battery, would I be justified in asking them to ‘do it right’ and replace the batteries with two deep cycles? It seems to me that they should have known better. I should add, this is my first boat so I can claim ignorance .

Right now, I have a 24V trolling motor, and I run everything off the 2 batteries to keep boat weigt down, and some of my storage open. My starting battery is a group 27 battery(deep cycle) which also runs all the 12V accessories, my 2nd battery is the exact same battery and make is the starting battery. The starting battery usually ends up with about the same amount of charge as the 2nd trolling bttery after running the electronics for a day, butthe main engine also charges that battery while the motor is running.

I should have a designated starting battery to run the motor and accessories… but I dont right now. I plan to grab a pair of group 24 batteries in the future for backup trolling motor batteries(deep cycle), and one of them can serve for a cranking battery when I dont need the backup.

Trolling at higher speeds(1.5+) is very demanding on the juice especially if your slightly under power. The best/biggest batteries will give 5-6 hours max on a 24V system in average conditions.

minn kota makes a 60 amp reset breaker. costs bout 40 bucks and is really easy to install.its a must for 24 vlt systems. on your charger make sure it is set for lead acid or gel. there should be a plastic cap you replace on the side of the charger.one cap says lead and the other gel.you simply unscrew the cap and replace the correct cap. could be the problem if its not charging correctly.maybe worth a shot.if batteries plus gave you a cranking and trolling battery i would go back and demand 2 new ones.

I would absolutely call them on it. The only issue you have is that it has been 2 years. They likely will not do much for you, as the average life of batteries doesn’t go much past 3 years (at least for me). But they may surprise you.

Your other option would be to go to Wally World and get 2 MAXX 29’s. The price is right, and they have a good warranty. I put these in last year for my 24v system, a MAXX 27 for cranking and have not had a problem. I can fish a full 8 hour tournament in the wind, and have plenty of juice left.

Glenn

OK, got out and tried the new battery’s. I trolled for about 4.5 hours and my batterys held a “good” indicator. That means it is safe to say my trolling motor is good, I have it on charge and will hit it again tommorrow and hope for the same results, Thanks again everyone for your help! On a side note I caught some nice walleyes on the Chip river today on jointed shad raps. Looks like it is going to be a pretty good weekend of fishing with the stable weather……

Good to hear your up and running .

Good to hear