How Much Trolling Motor do I need?

[Andyfender]

I have a 14' Grumman 4.4. It weights around 205lbs. I am looking at getting a Minn Kota 55lb Thrust. My question is do I get a 12v or 24v.

AF

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: How Much Trolling Motor do I need?

I'd go with a 12V and keep it simple. 55lbs is plenty for a 14' aluminum rig.

 

[Socal Pat]

Re: How Much Trolling Motor do I need?

Agreed. I also have a 14' aluminum BlueStar and run a 12v 40lb Minkota. 1 Battery is lighter and easier than 2 and I'm a cheap SOB.

 

[Andyfender]

Re: How Much Trolling Motor do I need?

How much time would a 12v give you on on the water? Ball Park figure?

Andy

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: How Much Trolling Motor do I need?

How much time would a 12v give you on on the water? Ball Park figure?

Andy

Depends on how big a 12V deep cycle you are using. I have a Energizer Marine/RV 29HM that's served me very well. It is a larger one...it has 675 cold cranking amps, 875 marine. It says that is has 210 RC(reserve capacity) minutes.

I've never run out of juice since I always fully charge it as soon as I get off the water and make sure to store it on a wood surface indoors for the winter.

I've been out on lakes and rivers for 6-8hrs and haven't had any problems. I bring a paddle in case, and I've acquired a 5.5hp Johnson, but trust the electric just as much. I've even run a fishfinder off the same battery and haven't had issues with interference either

 

[Socal Pat]

Re: How Much Trolling Motor do I need?

How much time would a 12v give you on on the water? Ball Park figure?

Andy

It depends greatly upon the load you put on it. Put your trolling motor on high and it will go in a few (maybe a couple) hours. Setting 1 or 2 and you can cruise most of the day.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: How Much Trolling Motor do I need?

It depends greatly upon the load you put on it. Put your trolling motor on high and it will go in a few (maybe a couple) hours. Setting 1 or 2 and you can cruise most of the day.

This is true, but it does depend on which Minn Kota model your talking about. Minn Kota's newer models like the Vantage, Traxxis and Vector have what's called "Digital Maximizer".

The cheaper ones(like my Minn Kota Endura 30lb thrust) lack this feature and from what I've read you can run it on 1 or 5 and the battery drains at the same rate. The digital maximizer one's have a scale from 0-100 and will save more juice on the lower speed settings.

For this reason I usually run mine on 5 regardless of what I'm doing since it drains equally anyways and you get much further on the same juice.