Re: How Long Will That Battery Last
Hey Ken,
I just got back from fishing in my jon boat, trolled around for 16 hours,,, stripers didn't want to play
Here's some interesting real world info about digital TM's. I took the 70# Vector (digital) TM troller off my 18'er and slapped it on the 14' jon boat. Yeah way over kill, but I knew I couldn't troll 14+ hours on my 40# Endura and 2 group 29 batteries. After trolling for 4 hours I hit the battery state indicator on the TM and it said FULL (?), another couple hours FULL (?), another couple hours and FULL??? Yeah I know, that can't be right? At about 10 hours it dropped to 3/4 charge and stayed there the rest of the trip. When I got home the batteries were at 12.5V and the smart chargers said the batteries were at 75% capacity. This was trolling on a speed comparable to #2 on the 40# Endura, with a full battery.
Now you're probably saying, why don't you have a digital TM on the jon boat? Well, I tried 2 of them out in the past. MotorGuide Varimax is a POS and I returned it, lots of people complained about this TM, a lot of different complaints. So, I bought a MinnKota Traxxis and the thing was frigging noisy as the speed I troll (same as the MG Varimax) not good for spooky big stripers,,,, so that one went back too. My ol' 40# Endura was much quieter so I kept running it, even though it drinks batteries. Now the Vector, it's just as quite as the Endura??? I guess the controller pushes power out different on the Vector as it's not noisy like the Vector and Traxxis.
(Eh, maybe I'm unlucky and got 2 bad TM's in a row...)
BTW, 70# of trolling motor is ridiculous for a 600# 14' jon boat, but it rips weeds off the lures real nice
Hey Ken,
I just got back from fishing in my jon boat, trolled around for 16 hours,,, stripers didn't want to play
Here's some interesting real world info about digital TM's. I took the 70# Vector (digital) TM troller off my 18'er and slapped it on the 14' jon boat. Yeah way over kill, but I knew I couldn't troll 14+ hours on my 40# Endura and 2 group 29 batteries. After trolling for 4 hours I hit the battery state indicator on the TM and it said FULL (?), another couple hours FULL (?), another couple hours and FULL??? Yeah I know, that can't be right? At about 10 hours it dropped to 3/4 charge and stayed there the rest of the trip. When I got home the batteries were at 12.5V and the smart chargers said the batteries were at 75% capacity. This was trolling on a speed comparable to #2 on the 40# Endura, with a full battery.
Now you're probably saying, why don't you have a digital TM on the jon boat? Well, I tried 2 of them out in the past. MotorGuide Varimax is a POS and I returned it, lots of people complained about this TM, a lot of different complaints. So, I bought a MinnKota Traxxis and the thing was frigging noisy as the speed I troll (same as the MG Varimax) not good for spooky big stripers,,,, so that one went back too. My ol' 40# Endura was much quieter so I kept running it, even though it drinks batteries. Now the Vector, it's just as quite as the Endura??? I guess the controller pushes power out different on the Vector as it's not noisy like the Vector and Traxxis.
(Eh, maybe I'm unlucky and got 2 bad TM's in a row...
)BTW, 70# of trolling motor is ridiculous for a 600# 14' jon boat, but it rips weeds off the lures real nice