Trolling motor battery question

My boat is a 1996 Alumacraft Dominator CS. It’s a 16.5 boat and is 74″ wide. I ran it last year with an old 44# evinrude cable driven trolling motor. This year I will be using a 12volt 55# Powerdrive V2 with Ipilot.

On most of the lakes I fish I imangine I will have more than enough battery life out of the trolling motor. I am concerned somewhat about how it will preform in P4 and how long the battery may last.

I am curious if anyone has any exeperince with a similar sized boat and TM. I know one of the easy answers would be to run 2 batteries parallel but my battery compartment is pretty tight and would most likely require a BFH mod to get 2 of them to fit. If I did this how would I hook up my smart charger? Is the best solution to just buy a 2nd battery and keep it in the back of the boat and replace as needed?

It doesn’t take long to swap out batteries if you bring one along when you think you will need it. How do you typically fish on pool 4? If dragging I would definitely bring along another battery if you are just vertical jigging and the wind is not bad you should not have a problem.

dbright wrote:

It doesn’t take long to swap out batteries if you bring one along when you think you will need it. How do you typically fish on pool 4? If dragging I would definitely bring along another battery if you are just vertical jigging and the wind is not bad you should not have a problem.

I honestly don’t know as I have never had my boat on p4. I tend to be a drift/jig fisherman more than a trolling/dragging fisherman but that’s not to say I never drag or troll.

Is there any advantage of running parallel other than not having to switch the batteries?

There would be no other benefit besides not having to change them.

mark-bruzek wrote:

There would be no other benefit besides not having to change them.

Thanks. Looks like I will grab a new battery and just bring it along as needed.

What size battery do you have?
How old?

Personally i think 55# is on the small side, but if you let us know your battery size we can give you a good idea how long it’ll go.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

What size battery do you have?<BR>How old?
<P></P>
<P>Personally i think 55# is on the small side, but if you let us know your battery size we can give you a good idea how long it’ll go. </P>

I’m at work right now but can get the battery size when I get home. Minnkota recomended a 45# thust for my boat. It’s not a very heavy boat

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I tend to over kill on the trolling motor.
I used to have a small 16′ with a 60″, 24V, 70#.
Can hit spot lock in any wind or waves.
Now i have a 17′ wind shield and yes it’s totally adequate, but can’t go over 3 mph.
I doubt they rate them for wind and current.

Jonesy wrote:

My boat is a 1996 Alumacraft Dominator CS. It’s a 16.5 boat and is 74″ wide. I ran it last year with an old 44# evinrude cable driven trolling motor. This year I will be using a 12volt 55# Powerdrive V2 with Ipilot.

On most of the lakes I fish I imangine I will have more than enough battery life out of the trolling motor. I am concerned somewhat about how it will preform in P4 and how long the battery may last.

I am curious if anyone has any exeperince with a similar sized boat and TM. I know one of the easy answers would be to run 2 batteries parallel but my battery compartment is pretty tight and would most likely require a BFH mod to get 2 of them to fit. If I did this how would I hook up my smart charger? Is the best solution to just buy a 2nd battery and keep it in the back of the boat and replace as needed?

I had that exact same setup and had problems. First, 55# thrust will be adequate most days but I have 55# on my canoe. The problem is you never know when the wind will gust and blow you off your course or into something. Without more thrust you’ll be running to start your motor to get out of trouble especially when your battery starts to lose power. The second problem is when you get into that situation and you need to swap batteries. My boat had a tight comparment too. Swapping out a battery in tight quarters while the boat is bouncing in the waves and you’re about to run into a hazard is not where you want to be. I’d recommend 2 batteries in parallel (both should be identical – not one new battery and one old one) to start. When it comes time I’d also recommend a more powerful trolling motor.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

What size battery do you have?
How old?

Personally i think 55# is on the small side, but if you let us know your battery size we can give you a good idea how long it’ll go.

My battery size is a size 27

Assuming you only have 1 battery. It’s not going to get you far on a windy day in current. If the batteyr is still in good shape, 3-6 hours dending on how hard you use it.

I haven’t had a 1 battery trolling system in so long i have a hard time remembering how long a 27 used to last.

As advised by others, toss a 2nd battery in parallel for longer run time. If you don’t want to buy two new batteries (Never good to hook old and new together) then you could simply set the two batteries next to each other and move your trolling motor cables from one battery to the other as one dies.

So when you have two batteries in parallel, you only need to hook your smart charger to one of the batteries terminals. It’ll charge both. I’d recommend something that goes up to 10amps for two group 27’s.

I’d say take it to P4 and find out how long it works. You can anchor and pitch jigs after it runs out, or drift downstream.

Went out on P4 yesterday. Was on the water for about 4.5 hours and used the trolling motor pretty heavily. According to the battery tester on my trolling motor I still had “half” the battery left. Even in the heaviest current I was fishing spot lock never kicked power above a 3.5 and going against the current it would move the boat about 2.8mph

For what it’s worth, when you run two equal batteries in parallel, you decrease the current load by half and can often extend the run time by 10%-25% over running each battery individually.

Phil Bauerly wrote:

For what it’s worth, when you run two equal batteries in parallel, you decrease the current load by half and can often extend the run time by 10%-25% over running each battery individually.

I’d like to hook them up in parallel but I’m really skeptical that I can fit 2 batteries in my compartment without making pretty big modifications

Home Depot has group 31 deep cycle for $90 right now. Just picked one up for my future #55 12v for my 14′ alumacraft. Fits perfect in the front battery storage. Figure go big or go home plus the price was right and here’s to hoping!

That’s a nice boat, like how them gunwhales shoot all the way down. Mine stop at the front.

nhamm wrote:

Home Depot has group 31 deep cycle for $90 right now. Just picked one up for my future #55 12v for my 14′ alumacraft. Fits perfect in the front battery storage. Figure go big or go home plus the price was right and here’s to hoping!

That’s a nice boat, like how them gunwhales shoot all the way down. Mine stop at the front.

Don’t have a home depot near me but I do have family near one. Maybe I should have them pick it up.

Thanks for the compliment on the boat. I really enjoy it. Had it out in some rough stuff last year on Leech and she did pretty good.