northgabassfisher Posted August 27, 2005 Share Posted August 27, 2005 I need a charger for a 15 foot jon boat im not wanting to spend a hole lot of money, and how long can a boat run on a trolling motor runing its a minn kota. im wanting a onboard charger because im going to be using my trolling motor mostly but its got a 20hp Mercury that ill be cranking up every now and then. by the way this is my first boat so any other electronics i might need let me know. it comes with a humminbird fish finder but no GPS. i would like to get a new fish finder i was looking at the humminbird matrix do any yall have this? is it any good. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User Sam Posted August 28, 2005 Super User Share Posted August 28, 2005 Check out the Bass Pro Shop catalog as they have many chargers to select among. You may want to get a two bank charger - one for your cranking battery and one for your trolling battery. If you can get to a Bass Pro Shop, check with their staff (and the Tracker maintenance people if they have a Tracker/Nitro shop at your BPS location) and they can give you the pros and cons. Also, try searching for battery chargers on this site. I know the subject has been discussed before. Good Luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digdug Posted August 28, 2005 Share Posted August 28, 2005 How long a boat can run on a trolling motor depends on a couple of factors. 1. How many amp hours of storage does the battery have? The more the amp hours the longer or more work the trolling motor can do. I've seen deep cycle rated from 80 amp hours to 225 amp hours. 2. How much work the trolling motor is having to do? Are you running the motor on full power all the time, or are you running it closer to 1/2 power. (Generally speaking electric motors are most effient at about 80% of full amp load, as far as power input vs work done.) 3. Are you using your deep cycle battery to start you outboard? This can lead to a very short battery life. Also you don't want to run your electronics from your trolling motor battery, this can shorten the life of your electronics. 4. For an onboard charger you diffently want one that will charge at least 10amps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northgabassfisher Posted August 28, 2005 Author Share Posted August 28, 2005 i have to pull start my outboard, i mostly go to lake were its trolling motor only. do i need to run electronics on a diffrent battery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted August 30, 2005 Share Posted August 30, 2005 As mention, depends on TM. If your'e using a standard TM, one that has the five or six different selectable speeds and not using a MinKota Maxximizer, or similar fully variable speed TM it doesn't hurt to run your electronics, (depth finder etc). If you are running the Maxximizer or similar do not connect your electronics to the TM battery. Get you a $20 lawn and garden battery to run them, it will last a long time just on the electronics. Run time totally depends on amp hour rating of battery and amp draw of the TM. A 105 - 115 AH deep cycle battery will run a 28 lb thrust TM for several hours - at slower speeds but probably about 2 hours on Max. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.