08-08-2010, 04:21 PM
A few weeks ago I took my toon upstream into the wind at Milner. The flow was in the 8600 CFS range. It was a somewhat strong current but not real bad at the edges. The wind, and weeds were more of an issue. Between the two I only had 12.4 volts when I made it up stream 3 miles to my destination. I fished there for a few hours and drifted back down stream. I didn't use my motor much after that.
This kind of float is one of the reasons I got the motor. To go up stream until I reached a point I wanted to fish or until I was down to about 50% of battery then I would just float back down and use the motor for a quick run out down stream if I had to.
I read a little about batteries in a old book I have on fishing. It said 12.6 was 100%, 12.4 was 75%, 12.2 was 50%, 12.0 was 25%, and 11.9 is 0 %. I don't think this is a 100% fact. My old battery will almost not move the boat at 12.2 volts. My new battery will still go good at 12.3 volts. So like TD suggests I keep a little in reserve.
It would be interesting to see the actual MPG so to speak on the different boats. A regular fishing boat, pontoon and float tube. My pontoon is kind of heavy with a size 27 battery, 40# thrust motor, cooler, fishing gear and me. But still I thought the 40# thrust motor would make it fly. In reality I won't be pulling a skier any time soon. I have hooked my son's pontoon to mine and used the motor to pull us both across Brownlee and other places. The extra length made the whole thing settle down and drive very nice. I think that trolling with two boats together would be a very easy thing to do. It would also be interesting to see how long the battery lasted with two boats together.
Last friday at SFCR I hooked them both together to get me and my friend Dan across the lake in HEAVY wind.
He had rowed across and the wind got real bad. At first he didn't want to hook them together but after I towed him the first time he was hooked. Ron
[signature]
This kind of float is one of the reasons I got the motor. To go up stream until I reached a point I wanted to fish or until I was down to about 50% of battery then I would just float back down and use the motor for a quick run out down stream if I had to.
I read a little about batteries in a old book I have on fishing. It said 12.6 was 100%, 12.4 was 75%, 12.2 was 50%, 12.0 was 25%, and 11.9 is 0 %. I don't think this is a 100% fact. My old battery will almost not move the boat at 12.2 volts. My new battery will still go good at 12.3 volts. So like TD suggests I keep a little in reserve.
It would be interesting to see the actual MPG so to speak on the different boats. A regular fishing boat, pontoon and float tube. My pontoon is kind of heavy with a size 27 battery, 40# thrust motor, cooler, fishing gear and me. But still I thought the 40# thrust motor would make it fly. In reality I won't be pulling a skier any time soon. I have hooked my son's pontoon to mine and used the motor to pull us both across Brownlee and other places. The extra length made the whole thing settle down and drive very nice. I think that trolling with two boats together would be a very easy thing to do. It would also be interesting to see how long the battery lasted with two boats together.
Last friday at SFCR I hooked them both together to get me and my friend Dan across the lake in HEAVY wind.
He had rowed across and the wind got real bad. At first he didn't want to hook them together but after I towed him the first time he was hooked. Ron
[signature]