How Many Hours Runtime on Your 24V Trolling Motor

General Boats and Motors
1

I need new batteries I think. I get 2-3 hours of strong troll, then it heads downhill pretty fast, maybe another hour tops

The 2-3 hours lately has been against some fairly good wind, but not current especially like a mid flood tide like at the coast.

It’s a minn kota riptide trevolla, 60 inch shaft, 80 lb thrust on a 21 foot boat.

So anyway, what Runtime are you getting on your troller?

I know to divide amp hours by max amp draw, but I’m kinda looking for real world numbers.

Thanks in advance

EF

2

Go with a lithium 100ah battery and you will be good. I have 36V 105lb thrust fishing in the tide current and can fish two days without going below 50%

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3

Wow, that’s pretty good. The 24v lithium batteries I’m looking at cost like a war pension.

I’m a little hesitant to go lithium due to the thermal runaway associated with those batteries, especially in a marine environment.

A lot of my buddies swear by them though, so there’s that.

I am conflicted on lithium, personally I’ve had too many wires corroded and shorted over the years to fully trust them. In all honestly a lot of my apprehension comes from my lack of understanding how and why they work like they do.

Thanks for your input @Striker

4

I just found out on the lithium batteries are not to be kept below 32 degrees, which excludes them for me.

I also learned you shouldn’t store them above 100 degrees anytime, and never ever above 125.

Something to consider on a hot August day at the grillage, huh?

Like i said, I’m conflicted on lithium batteries in that environment.

Just a thought

5

Made the switch to lithium Epoch 24v during Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale, game changer!

No doubt lithium is a luxury and the extra benefits may not be worth it to all. My previous two standard 12 volts usually ran okay for 5-6 hours (less if sustainted 7+ power) but as you mentioned, would slowly see power degrade as the day went on. They would typically take 3-4 hours to charge after each trip.

Single 100ah 24v lithium runs full power with no let up and so far hasn’t used more than 30-35% of the battery after fishing 5-6 hours. In addition the app shows dynamic info (battery life, charge time,…etc) so you always know status. I Still recharge back to 100% after each trip which takes an hour or two.

If you don’t store your boat near a power source the time savings in charging (and that you don’t necessarily need to after every trip) is meaningful.

Although I didn’t buy from him because I wanted an Epoch (RO20 sponsor), Brian at Charleston Marine was very helpful and a great source of info. And the customer service at Epoch was good as well.

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6

Lithium ion are the safer of the options if you’re going away from lead acid. You should be getting better number than that from your setup for sure. Have you load tested your batts aside from running the motor? Lol… guess it doesnt matter if you’re replacing them anyway.

7

I believe if you further research the temperature limits on lithium’s that is referring to charging them at those temps, but you are correct they are pricey. I went with Tournament Lithium brand, very well built and priced competitively.

8

Good info, thanks guys.

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9

OK, so it was the batteries, or at least one of them.

I bought this boat used last year and just overlooked ensuring both batteries for the troller were exactly the same. Well, they weren’t.

They were both group 24, one of them was a deep cycle starting battery with 650 CCA and 65ah. The other was a straight deep cycle with 1000 CCA and 85ah.

Also the dates on the batteries were 2 years apart, the newest being just 10 months old. I suspect only one was changed before they sold me the boat, and the previous owner just stuck a cheap one in and waved bye bye to me.

I looked at specs, price, ratings, and reviews on a ton of batteries from Walmarts brand Easystart to blue top optimax, Diehard Platinum, and even 24v lithiums. I looked hard.

So after much research I decided to go with old school Walmart group 27 lead acid batteries, and here’s why I picked them over AGM and Lithium ion ones .

First and foremost was the amp hours, the Easystarts have 110ah, that’s at least 10 more than anything else in the group 27 size. Optimax only has 85 and the lithium ion ones I looked at under $250 each only had 100ah. Interstate and Duralast were even worse

Second was the price. With my core exchanges I got two Easystarts for just over $200 out the door. That figured out to a little less than a dollar per amp hour, so there’s that.

Third, I am still a little sketchy feeling about lithium ion batteries getting wet or soaked at some point in the future and personally I’m not willing to risk the thermal runaway associated with wet lithium, but that’s just me and why it’s low on the list.

Last were the reviews and ratings. For what it’s worth The Hull Truth has a wealth of info on real world numbers as far as battery stats and charging in a marine environment too.
After reading so many reviews over there I was less apprehensive about buying one of the cheapest batteries for my application,.,something I rarely do.

So anyway, I hooked it all up last night and I swear the prop spins so fast now it’ll move the boat on dry ground, lol. Before it sounded like the noise you make when the doctor says “say ahhh” , and now it sounds like the little piggy going “Weeeeeeeeeeee” all the way home

That’s all I got

EF

10

Good topic and info here fellas. I’ve got 36 volt Minn Kota that’s 3 yrs old and charge has degraded substantially since the fall, probably 50% less. Shows 3 bars after overnight charge, down to 1 bar after 2 hours of use. Used to get 10 hours of use off a charge. Do the batteries need replacing already?

11

What kind of batteries?

Were they maintained regularly?

How many times were they charged (estimate)

Do they ever get below freezing for amy length of time?

See, here’s the deal. Just keep the receipts (I put them in a ziplock and duct tape them to the battery), get the 2 year warranty ones and in 21 months trade them in. They are certainly degraded by then, right? I’ll swear to it, lol.

I kid, I kid, but maybe?

Had a guy tell me at the tire store when I got new tires to only get the warranty on one tire, because “de don know which one go pop bo”.

But yeah KC, it’s probably your batteries. Hardly any batteries are warrantied past 3 years, most just one, so there’s that

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12

One final thing I found out today that I thought was interesting and noteworthy,

If you discharge your group 27 lead acid batteries around 50% each trip (or so) and then top them off that evening you should get around 1000 charges/uses out of them.

on the other hand…

If you completely discharge your group 27 lead acid batteries (under 20-25%) and then top them off that evening you should get around 50 charges/uses out of them.

Thats a HUGE difference. Vast really.

Not sure what the numbers are on lithium ion.

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13

Millennium lead acid 27’s. Have been maintained but exposed to ma nature for 3 years. Your point @EF1 about charge level when charging hits home. I would regularly fish for a couple days and run the batteries down very low before charging. Never more. I’m looking at the Walmart Everstart deep cycle. They have a 2 yr warranty AGM battery that’s $50 more than the 1 yr lead acid.

14

I would look at amp hours, thats what matters. How many amp hours does the glass matt battery have?

If it doesn’t say the amp hours on the label it will have a RC value. An RC value of 180 equals 100amp hours. an RC value of 160 is 85ish amp hours.

Hope that helps, but remember for a troller its amp hours per battery size you seek.

I think, lol

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