Capacity Recommendations for 70lb PowerDrive

[capndan]

I just received my new PowerDrive 70lb thrust TM. I've been all over the Minn-Kota website looking for what the amp draw is on this motor, and can't find it. Nothing in my paperwork with the motor either.
I emailed them a week ago when I ordered it, no response.

I phoned them, and gave up after 15 minutes on hold.

The manual did recommend "at least a 100 amp hour rating"...

It doesn't tell me anything about how long this will run..

Any recommendations? It's a 24V set up, and I'd like to have 5 hours at least...more if not too impractical..

any advice would be appreciated, as I hope to buy my batteries in a couple of days, and get the system set up this weekend.

Thanks,

Dan L

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Capacity Recommendations for 70lb PowerDrive

Your motor draws 42 amps maximum. Here are some numbers to chew on. Most deep cycle batteries are rated as follows"

Reserve Minutes: xxx @ 23 amp draw. That means your 42 amp motor will draw 42 amps/hour (less if running anything less than full speed). If you ran constantly for 5 hours you would draw 210 Amps. So a battery rated at 170 reserve minutes at 23 amp draw would provide about 85 - 90 minutes at 42 amps. Again, keep in mind the motor draws less than that at slower speeds. How much less is not a published number and depends on too many factors to actually publish anything meaningful. So when it comes to batteries, you cannot go too big -- just too small. I think you are looking at group size 29 or larger.

 

[capndan]

Re: Capacity Recommendations for 70lb PowerDrive

thanks, again, Silvertip!