Trolling motor batteries??

[Wildlineman]

I will be in need of two new batteries for my Minn Kota trolling motor before the season starts. What is a good battery brand to buy and where can they be purchased?

Thanks for the help!!
Shayne

[rmh2o]

There is a post below on deep cycles but after reading it I am really confused.

[Wildlineman]

I'm confused too and that's why I had to ask this question......
Shayne

[joshb]

like i said ..........go with interstate, either the m - 27's or the m - 29's depending on how hard you use your troller and if you have a 24 volt system it will suck less juice than a 12 volt system so you will be set, my buddy runs 2 m - 29's on his 17 footer and he can run for three days without a charge. i got mine at capra's but just look around and be sure to look for the highest reserve hours that is what determines batt life while useing the troll.

[CabinBoy]

I'd also have to recommend Interstate. They now seem to be right in the middle of the pack price-wise. I run the 27's on a 24V system and can run them hard for 2 days. My .02.

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fish smarter, not harder

[Guest]

I think it's at least as important to have a good quality charger if you want to get good performance and long life out of your trolling batteries. My friends and I all have Guest chargers, and have had great luck with them. They seem a little expensive, but will pay for themselves over and over again, trust me! I'm sure there are plenty of other great brands of "smart chargers" out there too. Just my 2 cents!

[RK]

Hiya,
Yeah, the battery thing can be confusing, especially with some of the new technoligies out there right now.

When I was doing some research on deep cycles for an article, I called Jim Wentworth at Fish-Lectronics in Nisswa. Jim rigs all the In-Fisherman boats, has for years, and is responsible for a lot of the common practices in rigging today. He probably created the first onboard battery maintenance system, from scratch... So when I called to ask him how to pick a good deep cycle, he said 'go into the battery store and start picking up batteries. When you find one that's so heavy it makes you hemmarhoids tingle, buy it.'

His point was, for lead acid batteries, the number of plates is a huge factor in their performance. More plates (thus more weight) is a good sign.

As someone else said, a good battery maintenance system is a huge factor in battery performance over the long term as well. Get a good quality onboard charger, and be religious about plugging it in immediately after using your deep cycles, and you'll get good performance and long life out of them. Up here in MN, taking care of them in the winter is also important. I bought another onboard charger and bolted it to a shelf in my basement. When I winterize my boat, the batteries go on the shelf hooked up to the charger, and are maintained all winter. It seems to make a big difference in how long the batteries last.

For the record, I've run Trojan 31 series batteries for several years, and they've been super. Heavy as all get out, but have never let me down.

Cheers,
RK