trolling motor battery question

greetings all knowing people of TW. Time to call upon the collective "Wisdom" again. Bought a new to me boat a few months ago and my trolling motor is starting to act up. It will run great for a while then it will begin to slow down, like the battery is losing its charge. Put the battery on the charger and it shows only a 75%ish drain or so. My thought is that the battery is done and just is not putting out the required amperage any more. I do not know how old it is because all the stickers have been worn off through time and use. It has been stored either in a plastic battery holder on the boat or on a wood block in the garage when it gets charged. Would everyone here agree that it is time to replace the battery?

 

Sounds like an old battery to me, just make sure your trolling motor isn't acting up because it is getting too hot.

 

it shouldnt be doing that considering the water is a nice 55-60 around here. should be plenty to keep it from overheating

 

I've had great luck running deep cycle batteries completely dead. I use an old trailer light with aligator clips on the leads. I hook up the light to the battery and let it drain slowly for a couple days. When the light is totally out, you know the battery is completly drained. DC batteries are designed for deep draining, They are designed for that. I've had DC batteries that would not even register a 1/2 of a volt and have been able to bring them back to life. You will need a known good battery to do this. Most newer battery chargers will not input a charge if they battery charger registers less than 8 volts. The charger thinks there is a bad cell and will turn itself off.

Hook a good battery with the dead battery using jumper cables, then hook up the charger. the charger doesn't know there is 2 batteries, it just thinks it is charging 1, low battery.

If you are investing in a battery charger, make sure you get one with a battery reconditioner or desuphating mode. I've only had 2 DC batteries that I could not get to come back to service.

 

I guess if all the stickers have fallen off , there is no real way to tell if its a deep cycle marine battery . Those critters are expensive where I live
A short blurb on how they work http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_cycle_battery

Example of cost http://www.oodmag.com/community/sho...-Cycle-Marine-Batteries-for-my-Trolling-Motor

 

I took it in today and had a load test on it. that test ended up costing me nearly $200

 

Well looks like you got a new battery . End of headache for a few years.

 

always a new headache with boats

 

Please see Section 16 in Car and Deep Cycle Battery FAQ on www.batteryfaq.org for more information on sulfation.

 

Great article! Thanks.