All -

It appears that a lot of people on this message board are boaters and have long since been in a rental boat. However, as I am not as fortunate to have a boat yet, I was hoping that you could share your expertise by answering the following questions to help my rental experiences more enjoyable.  

Context: I plan to use the following gear on rental boats at local freshwater lakes to bass fish.

1. Depth Finder: I am looking at a unit with 300 Watts RMS (2400 Watts PtP) Power Output rated for 1000 ft Deep. As I only plan to fish local lakes in less than 75 feet of water, is this more than enough power?

2. Trolling Motor: I am looking at Minn Kota or Motor Guide transom mount trolling motors. Is one brand better than another? Is there a minimum thrust lb (40?) that you would recommend? I only plan to use it on the aluminum rental boats and I don't expect that would use it after purchasing a boat. Also, do you recommend a 36 or 42 shaft?

3. Battery: If I plan to power the above Trolling Motor (just for trolling 10 hours) how large a battery do I need? Group 24 or 27? Is one brand better than another? Sears Die Hard? Walmart Everstart?

4. Charger: Is there a particular brand portable charger that you would recommend? I understand that I should buy an automatic 3 stage charger.

Thanks in advance for the help.

-Dave

1.      For a depth/fish finder on a rental boat I would recommend one of the bottom line fish finders. http://www.cannondownriggers.com/site/html/htmlsite/bl/fb1101.htm I have one of the older models and it works very well. It is real easy to set up on a rental boat. I really like the side finder feature. I still use it on both of my boats.

2.      For a transom mount trolling motor a 36 shaft should be all you need. I would get the most powerful you can afford. You can never have too much power. The only downside the more powerful the motor the more power it uses and the shorter the run time.  You can always run it at a slower speed. I have and always had Minn-Kota motors. Never had a problem. I do not have first hand experience with motor guide so I can not give first hand experience on them.

3.      A trolling motor battery.  Again I would say buy the biggest you can afford. I would go with a group 34 105 Amp Hour. But I do not think you can get 10 hours of run time unless you buy 2 and hook them together in parallel. 10 hours X 35 amps(A good average of current draw on a trolling motor) = 350 amp hours. I know people who use two 6volt golf cart batteries. But they are two heavy to be carrying around to put in a rental boat.  I have a 105 AH AC Delco battery in my big boat 4 years no problem (now that I said it will die next time I use it.) I also have a 75AH Everstart (walmart) in my small boat, electric motor only. Only a year old no problem yet. I have heard good things about optima batteries but no first hand experience.  

4.      I would agree than you want a full automatic charger. I have a Schumacher charger that I keep on my big battery. It is big enough to charge it over night incase I need a full charge again the next morning. http://www.batterychargers.com/details.cfm?prodid=SE%2D1275A&catid=16

I have a vector 2 amp charger for my smaller battery. I actually bought mine at wal*mart for $19.99. It takes 40 hours or so to charge the small battery but that does not matter to me because it maybe a month before it is used again. I just use it to maintain it. If I do need this battery charged quicker I'll just switch chargers.

I hope my babbling helps you

Paul

 With a fiberglass boat you can place the tranducer in the little pocket in the back for the drain plug and shoot through the hull.  I just needs enough water to keep air from getting between the hull and transducer face, about 1/8" if it's flat faced like the TM mount puck style.  For your aluminum, you will need a clamp on or suction cup bracket to hold the transducer outside the boat.  

For a depth finder, if you get those little cheap things about all they are good for is showing the depth.  The pixels are just too large to show detail.  160 pixel is barely ok, 240 is much better, 320 - 480 will give you the best.

The MK Maximizer or  MG variable speed trolling motor will give you the longest run time from a battery when running at less than full speed.  I would get a self contained depthfinder or have a small 20AH battery to run it on because both of these TM's can damage a depth finder if run on the same battery.  

I would not go any larger than a 42 lb thrust 36" shaft TM, especially if not a Maximinzer of MG variable speed, the current draw will be so much, you will get very little run time out of a singel 115 AH battery, maybe an hour at full speed.  Personally, I would stay at 36 lb thrust unless fishing a big lake where the wind could get you in trouble.  With a bigger motor in hard wind, you will only have a short time to get out of it before the battery dies.

Battery size should be group 27 or 31.  If TM only and needing it to last all day, I would stick with a 115 - 120 AH true deep cycle and not the dual purpose battery Wal-Mart sells.   A true deep cycle will have the amp hour capacity rating on it.  CCA and MCA doesn't not mean a thing to a TM. I'm not hung up on brand names, just so long as it's not made by GNB (which are sold under several names).  For TM only on a large lake, you may find you need two batteries in parallel.

Charger should be a 10 amp fully automatic, and not one of the cheap $30 things.