Trolling Motor Battery Life

[Aaron Carrell]

Ok, so this is going out to boat owners who have owned boats for quite a few years. I've had my current boat for 4 summers now and it was bought new. It came with my current batteries (don't know brand) and my 24v 80lb Minnkota. I've noticed this year that I'm barely getting 6 hrs of charge out of the batteries on a heavy use day. The boat has an onboard 2-bank charger that gets plugged in after every outting and stays plugged in until the next outting (stored inside).

Is 4 summers a good life for a battery or should I be expecting more from these batteries. I use the boat hard since I have never anchored in my life, and not to mention I'm not scared of being out in about any wind so those days really give it a beating. I used to be able to go 2-3 days of 10 hrs of fishing without noticing it getting slower, but not anymore. I just recently found out about needing to fill them with water, so I checked that, but they were still full to the top. Any ideas or is it time to start pricing for new ones. I just want to make sure I'm not dumping these batteries too early.

[fivebucks]

I've been able to get 4-6 years out of my deep cycle batteries. It could just be their time. Make sure if you ever fill them up to use distilled water and not tap water.

[Whoaru99]

Huh...20-30 hours of trolling/fishing sounds pretty darn good to me. Don't think I've ever gotten that much. Guess it depends on how hard you run the motor though.

How long the batteries hold up really depends on several factors. Keeping up the water and good charging practices are key, and it sounds like you have that under control.

Beyond that, it depends quite a lot on how low you drain the batteries and how often you use them. In other words, how many cycles they see, and how hard the cycles are. Even though batteries are typically referred to as "deep cycle", fact is, it's very hard on batteries to drain them way down below 50%.

I think four summers is doing good if you use them pretty hard/pretty frequently. Batteries are like most other things. The more and harder they're used, the faster they wear out.

[Jim Uran]

I would say that the batteries are at the end of their life! Especially if you've used them as hard as you have.

[broken_line]

ive had a battery for 3 years and used it for everything from drilling holes in the ice to startign a boat for 3 solid years and doesnt really hold a charge.. time for a new one?

[Sandmannd]

Mine were just over three years and replaced them this year. I get a lot more time out of it now and the motor functions much better.

[Aaron Carrell]

Alright, that was the affirmation I needed to spend the $$$. Sounds like I'll be doing some shopping soon. Its tough to make a full day of fishing when the boat only wants to survive half! And here I thought it would be my body giving out first...

What do most of you with new batteries and a 24v setup get out of a full charge typically? Do you ever get it to the point that you see a speed reduction due to low power? Does anyone have a pretty similar setup as me, 80lb 24v, that I can compare to?

[Esox_Magnum]

I run a 74# Power Drive on mine and a 80# Maxxum on the Muskie boat, both get used hard and both have Interstate 29 or 31 series and neither have gave out in a days time yet. Never ran them more than 1 day as they get charged after each days use.