Marine battery life and trolling motor

Grillzy · **Joined:** Sat May 08, 2010 3:53 pm **Posts:** 357

Question about marine battery life. Got a Crappy tire marine/ deep cycle at the start of the season. All summer I was getting 6hrs trolling runtime on it, now only 3hrs. Is this what I should expect?
Grillzy

Grateful Fisher · **Posted:** Mon Oct 31, 2011 7:08 am

I found the same last year, batteries definitely do not last as long in the fall

Trannyman1 · **Posted:** Mon Oct 31, 2011 8:11 am

Yes , the colder it gets the less reserve life the battery has.

http://chemistry.about.com/od/howthings ... attery.htm

Al

biff · **Joined:** Sat Sep 10, 2011 6:30 pm **Posts:** 451

I picked up 2 Optima Deep cycle marine batteries (Blue top) after going through 1 mercury and 1 nautilus deep cycle. Turns out if you research, some of these "Deep Cycle" batteries really aren't deep cycle.

No problems with these, and never seen the bottom of them after 2 days trolling. I wire them in parallel. I know they cost a bit upfront, but worth it. When your out on the water, you dont want to worry about them.

Grateful Fisher · **Posted:** Mon Oct 31, 2011 9:11 am

same results in cold weather biff? I just picked up 2 myself.

Roaster · **Posted:** Mon Oct 31, 2011 9:21 am

I ran into the same problem with a Crappy Tire battery I picked up, but it was in the summer I noticed the time of use dropping. Asked abround about it and found out I likely screwed the battery by trying to charge it too quickly. They recommend only changing at 2 or 3 amps for the deep cycles. Takes a while, but maintains the life better. Something about them heating up and deteriorating inside when charged quickly.

Fred Fisher · **Posted:** Mon Oct 31, 2011 9:44 am

Hi Grillzy. Like the Trannyman said the cold weather will greatly effect your running time. It has to do with the batteries Cold Cranking Amp reserve, I wont get into that. You could try a battery blanket to help keep it warm. Also it is true that allot of the so called Deep Cycle batteries are not a true deep cycle. There is one thing that i would recommend to all you guys recharging your marine batteries and that is to use a smart charger like the ones at Crappy Tire I have a commercial one but it is quite expensive and the ones at Crappy Tire work good. Allot of your bass boats have these type built right into them. These chargers will run a little diagnostic on your battery and adjust your charge rate to best charge the battery. It will also help break down the sulphur build up on the top of the plates as well as break down the cell paste that builds up in the bottom of the battery box causing a battery to short out. " Pos and Neg cell paste" Grey & Brown that will eventually kill your battery. I have brought batteries back with these chargers that would no longer take a charge from a regular charger " De-Sulphicate Mode ". Also how old is your trolling motor and how many hours on it ??? I have seen motors with high hours on them start to draw allot of amps due to worn brushes or bad bearings etc. You can run a load test on your motor to see if it is drawing hard.. Just some food for thought.... Fred

biff · **Joined:** Sat Sep 10, 2011 6:30 pm **Posts:** 451

I haven't seen any issues with the blue top optima. Expensive as hell, and heavy, but reliable. I heard that the cheaper batteries do not do well with the constant pounding that a boat would give them. I paid around $350 a piece for them. I also heard Crown batteries and Concorde are excellent as well, but haven't tried them.

Heres a great article on Deep cycle batteries:
http://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Battery_FAQ.htm#AGM, or Absorbed Glass Mat Batteries

I put an onboard DualPro and keep the D31M's plugged in in parallel.

Walleye 9 · **Joined:** Mon Jan 24, 2011 12:05 pm **Posts:** 1985

I've had 2 Crappy Tire batteries, and both of them only lasted 1 year. I still have the origional battery that came with the boat (4 years old) and I bought an Interstate battery 2 years ago ($110) which is still good. I have the Nautilus charger from Candian Tire which seems to be fine, but I will never buy another battery from there. Trickle charge is key I believe. It takes awhile, but if you have 2 batteries, it shouldn't be a problem.

Hope this helps.

Jeremy Green · **Joined:** Sat Oct 22, 2011 7:28 pm **Posts:** 213

canadian tire and Walmart brands, both Sell Recycled/Refurbished parts.

Unfortunately you get what you pay for,
Using the proper charger as stated above, and draining the battery between charges will greatly help the longevity of your battery.

there is some very helpfull information in those links posted above too.

~Jeremy.

ChugBug262 · **Joined:** Sun May 15, 2011 6:19 pm **Posts:** 464

Walleye 9 wrote:

I have the Nautilus charger from Candian Tire which seems to be fine, but I will never buy another battery from there. Trickle charge is key I believe. It takes awhile, but if you have 2 batteries, it shouldn't be a problem.

Hope this helps.

Same here !!! I asked around before I bought mine to people that trolled for Bass alot and got the same answer don't give a cent to Canadian Tire for any of their batteries. I purchased the orange 2A/4A intellegent charger for $20 from Canadian Tire (looks like a laptop charger) it has worked great on my Interstate Battery so far !!! I have used my battery hard all year so far and haven't any problems still holds a 6hr + for a 55lb Trolling motor.

Walleye 9 · **Joined:** Mon Jan 24, 2011 12:05 pm **Posts:** 1985

Ya, I troll for walleye with my electric, also a 55lb, all spring and summer, and usually get 6-8 hours/battery, under decent conditions. I only use the outboard to drive back and forth from where I'm fishing. With CT batteries, by the end of the year, I could only get 2-3 hours. May have something to do with colder weather, like a few of the boys mentioned earlier, but it aint that cold yet!!!!

Grillzy · **Joined:** Sat May 08, 2010 3:53 pm **Posts:** 357

Thanks for the replies guys. Using only a 25lb motor. Never thought about the amp draw. Only charged with an older small charger takes over 24 hours or my battery tender which takes about 3 days. Hope it has something to do with the cold weather or I'm not getting much bang for my buck. Does charging in a cold or warm environment matter?
Grillzy

MattClapp · **Joined:** Mon Jun 15, 2009 10:03 pm **Posts:** 210

Charging in hot temps has the potential of boiling your batteries – that’s bad. I am unsure of cold. I believe I have read that about 70F (20C) is the optimum temp to charge a lead acid 12v.

This year we switched to batteries from BatteriesExpert; they have a store in Kingston ironically about 3Km from CrappyTire. 800 cold cranking amp, 215 Reserve @25A ….. its almost three times more battery than anything from CrappyTire.

HOME	Bait&Tackle	Bed&Breakfast	Boat Rentals	Campgrounds	Contact Us
Cottage Rentals	Guides/Fishing Charters	Hotels/Motels	Hunting Supplies	Ice Huts/Ice Guides	Marinas
Outfitters	QUINTE FISHING SERIES	Resorts	Tourism	Trailer Parks	Launches

Quinte Fishing

Marine battery life and trolling motor

Who is online