Seeking trolling motor advice

[cane]

I have a 12v 55# V2 minnkota trolling motor on a 17 foot fiberglass hull. When marine deep cycle battery was new last spring, I struggled to get a full day in on a charge. After a year of light use, I'm lucky to get a half day in now.

Are there performance advantages in using an electric trolling motor versus a small gas powered kicker? Low cost of electricity versus fuel doesn't mean much if it takes time to charge and even a small 2 or 4 stroke can't be too hard on gas. Buying a new battery every year may be more expensive than the gas I'll use in my limited time on the water.

Thanks for any feedback, happy fishing or trolling depending the day!

[archenemy]

I'm putting an on-board alternator charger on my boat for the same reason. If it's windy and i'm running the TM hard my batteries last about 5 hours. Cost about $110 for a single bank MinnKota from BOE Marine.

[getlinewet]

I have a 24 minn kota power drive V2 (70 lbs thrust) on my 22' toon. Half of the season I troll deep diving artificials and I could only get 1-1/2 to 2 hours trolling time on the buggars because I usually troll them pretty fast to get them down in the water column. Very depressing situation.

I've partially solved the problem by adding another set of batteries which I switch over to when the mains seem to be dying. Still, that gives me a max of 4 hours trolling time, so your 1/2 day of trolling on 1 12 volt looks pretty good to me.

[Brian]

I would personally greatly prefer the electric motor especially for live bait trolling. Plus, a bow mounted trolling motor gives you far more control than a stern mounted motor. Also, think of all of the stopping and starting, fine speed adjustments, etc that would be a hassle with a gas motor.

What size battery are you using? Group 24? Get a Group 29 or 31 next time. Or, if you already have a big battery, you could run two in parallel for twice the run time.

Do you have an automatic charger that you can leave on the battery all of the time in maintenance mode? Recharging the battery as soon as you get off the water and leaving it on a maintenance charger can improve battery life (or at least not degrade it as quickly as other methods).

[cane]

Thanks for the feedback folks! I do have a group 29 battery running my trolling motor and I have another smaller battery supplying the starter to the main engine. I just installed a 3 bank charger so I'm hoping that helps get the most out of what is there now. I did consider adding another deep cycle in parallel with the existing one which is why I went ahead with the 3 bank so I'm glad to hear that suggestion. This probably makes the most sense. Happy fishing!