12 Volt 55lb Powerdrive V2 with I-Pilot battery issues

[smackthewalleyes]

Hello,

My friend has a 12 volt 55lb powerdrive v2 with an i-pilot and he says that his battery dies in 2 hours when he uses it. The batteries are in good shape and can last his old trolling motor all day long and more(tested them again the other day). Is this normal? Can somebody verify that they can use this setup much longer than 2 hours? Please Help. Thanks.

[Esox_Magnum]

Cant say on the 55 but our 80# will go more than all day and still have charge left....

[Jarrod32]

How many pounds thrust is his "other" motor?

And yeah, running a 55-pound thrust trolling motor on a 12-volt battery at high speed will run it down in a few hours. An advantage to a 24-volt system...

[walleyewild]

Had transom mount 55# 3x Vector on a 16' Lund that would go all day, but had to be recharged every night.

What size battery Group 24, 27 or 31?

If the motor is still in warranty take it in and have it tested by an authorized service center, you should still get more then 2 hours out of it.

But remember you still may not get a full day out of it, the GPS will draw current, not a lot, the drive and turning motors use a little more current then a manual or cable steer motor as well.

I would check the spec's on the motor and see what max current draw is then devide that by reserve capacity on the battery and it'll give you an idea of run time.

WW

[Ride_Red]

I have the same motor w ipilot installed from factory, I am running it on a 16.5 foot lund tyee, if there is any amount of wind my running time was cut way down, with a single 27 series interstate marine battery, my run time is about 4 hours on a calm night I can get around 6. I have upgraded to 2 batteries hooked pos to pos and neg to neg to double my amp/h and can run all day in a good wind, and still have power to go. If you use the track back record function it does draw the battery juice, since it is doing a lot of steering to stay right on course. I wouldn't give it up for anything though.

[vasquez]

Thanks, I will go with the two battery set up. The days I used it it was windy. Our tracks were short but the wind was a cross wind so it had to work both directions. We never had it higher than 5, I dont think speed was a factor. Thank everybody for your input.

[Ride_Red]

when I was on a single battery my GPS in it would shut down first and then the trolling motor would slowly run out. The more features you use like cruise speed control and track back seems to kill the battery faster, but you will not have any problems with the 2 battery system. Also make sure you unplug it when not in use as it will drain your batteries even if it not running the internal GPS is drawing power whenever it is plugged in.

[vasquez]

Thats exactly what mine did, unplugging it is also right on, I left it plugged in the first night and the GPS kept running. Thanks Again