Trolling motor ?

[bvpatten]

I have a 55lb thrust 12 volt trolling motor on the boat, problem is that on a heavy day of use the battery is dead by mid afternoon, can I hook up two batteries and wire them just like my pickup and not do any damage to the trolling motor? also any recommendations for a good onboard charging setup?
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[curt69]

Positive to positive , negative to negative = 12 volts and lasts twice as long . There are several on board marine chargers , any will work fine in this application .
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[flygoddess]

Doesn't Minn Kota make an on line charger. Also, you are using deep cycle batteries right?
Do you not have a gas motor that can charge the battery?
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[JLW]

+1 with Curt69. You can hook them in parallel and have twice the capacity. You definetly want deep cycle. If your motor has a charging system it should have it pre-wired where you could come off of to your batteries. The manual should tell you. I recommend using no smaller than 8 guage to tie your batteries together. use a light coat of battery grease. Remember tight and clean on your terminals[] good luck... Fishon
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[BearLakeFishGuy]

I run a Noco Gen2 (2 bank w/10amps per bank) on board charger. It keeps my two batteries charged and I just leave it hooked up to keep them topped off. This charger will not over charge your batteries and then when they do reach full charge it turns into a battery maintainer. The Noco chargers are cheaper than Minn Kota or most other marine chargers that are comparable and I have never had a problem with mine. I just plug in my boat when I get home from a trip and that is all I have to do.

If you wire your batteries as stated above you will get twice the use of only one battery. I too have a 55lb thrust 12 volt system.
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[bvpatten]

yes, it is a deep cycle and the gas motor has its own battery but is in the very back of the boat and the battery for the trolling motor is up front and I don't wont to run 10ft of both pos and neg cables to charge off the outboard, it is also only a year old and don't want to risk any damage to the big motors alternator, the dam thing cost more than the boat did! figured it was easier to add another battery and an on board charging system than try to run that much cable , but wanted some input on the two battery idea vs going to a 24 volt set up. thanks for the input guys, see you on the water!
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[utahduckhunter]

how old is the battery ? you might just have a dead cell in the battery
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[flygoddess]

Gotcha. I just thought the cable would be a lot less money and head ache.
Good luck and tight lines
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[curt69]

The batterys need to be a matched set . The weakiest battery will draw the stronger one down to it's level . Two unmatched will work , just not as well .
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[Crimson]

Just another thought. You didn't say how big your boat is and how you are using the electric motor.

I have a 19' fiberglass boat and I use a 70lb thrust Minn Kota, 24 volt motor for Bass fishing. I can fish all day (not trolling, but moving, positioning, holding with the electric) at Powell and still have some power at the end.

Since you are thinking of installing a second battery, you might consider moving up to a higher thrust motor that is a 24 volt type. You can always keep the 55 lb thrust as a backup.

Just another angle to consider.
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[SkunkedAgain]

If you end up buying new batteries, look at the amp-hour rating. The higher the number the longer your battery will last. I picked up a deep cycle from SAMs that had the best rating I could find and its been a great purchase, it lasts a long time and seems to retain most of that charge range several years later. It wasn't the cheapest battery they had, but it has been well worth the extra $30. If you know your motors amp draw you can divide the amp hour number by amps and end up with your approximate time the motor will run. PS two batteries just add the amp hours. J
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