Inflatable boat / trolling motor setup

[Corvin]

My father used to have a 14' Transom canoe from Sportspal, he used a trolling motor with a marine battery and he had a charger in the house.

It worked out great, we used to row out past the weeds and then motor over to where the fish were.

We used to get a good hour or so of run time on a fresh charge.

He used to put the battery on the charger's slow charge setting when he got back from fishing.

I think that the difference in the batteries is that car batteries are pretty much useless if you discharge them more then 40%, where the marine battery can be almost fully discharged and still recharge.

[bigwhiteash]

Yep.. deep cycle is the way to go.


You can get away with a car battery for light use.. an hour or so on the troll before charging.

[CAJUNBLAZE]

Don't let the gators chew on the boat!

How large is the inflatable?

Rich

[kevin7]

Corvin nailed it.

[Bassfever]

Yup. Optima blue is a good battery. I have 3 in my boat for the 5th season and they are still going strong. Ya put the boat in the water then ya can drop the troller and battery in and ya dont need anyone to help. I am actually at Champlain now for the week nailing the smallies. Have fun

[mrtr33]

Thanks for the advice, guys.

I should have explained a bit more about the setup. The boat is 9' 2", and weight capacity vary between the box it came in and the manufacturer's website. I would say it's between 700-900 lbs. capacity, more than enough for the two of us, tackle box, and frosty beverages.

I knew to get a deep cycle marine battery over a car battery, but I was under the impression that I would be able to get more than an hour out of the marine battery. Is this not the case? Again, I have been comparing manufacturer's websites vs. user reviews in other boating forums. I'm led to believe I can get several hours out of a single charge. I guess I'm wondering how much battery I need. I don't run the risk of too much battery, do I? The trolling motor in question is 12 volts; it probably won't be going very fast. I was hoping for at least a half-day's use out of the thing, though.

As far as battery chargers go, do the more expensive ones just mean that I can charge the battery quicker?

Thanks.

[bigwhiteash]

You should get WAAAAY more than an hour out of a marine battery...

Hell... me and a buddy easily get a full day of use on his 17' bass-tracker even with heavy trolling motor use.