New trolling motor, no battery life?

[reelfishin]

I have been running an older 3HP Minnkota transom mount trolling motor since about 1989. The boat is a standard 14' modified V jon boat. I run a single group 27 AC Delco deep cycle battery. I got the chance to pick up a new Riptide series 55lb thrust saltwater rated trolling motor, my thinking is that I can now venture into brackish and saltwater a bit. I first hung this motor on a smaller 12' V hull to give it a try, I borrowed the battery from the other boat. On the first time out, I killed the battery in less than 3 hours. Then again in even less time a week later.

To make the comparison fair, I put the Riptide 55# motor on the other boat and tried again, it did the same and killed the battery. The next day, I went back to the 3Hp and went all day on that motor, barely draining the battery at all.
Thinking that the new motor just draws more juice, I added a second new battery in series, this added only two hours of use. Fed up with the motor, I returned it and got another one. But the same thing continues. The problem is, the 3HP is a much faster motor with a lot more pull overall. It was pretty much my impression that this was a pretty close match to the old 3HP motor but in a sealed version? So far I'm pretty disappointed. There have been weekends where I ran my 3HP all weekend and never came close to draining the battery. This new motor does it in only a few hours. The 3hp uses an older style, more conventional prop, while the newer motor has a narrow blade weedless prop. On full power, they both move nicely, but the RT55 creates a huge prop wash or whirlpool behind the boat no matter how high or low its mounted. The 3HP makes far less water disturbance and the boat moves right out. I think the prop has some to do with it but not all.
The RT55 makes a lot of heat too, where as the 3HP doesn't. Even the control head on the RT55 gets warm.
For comparison reasons, I borrowed an Endura 40 from a buddy that tells me he gets about 4 hours at part throttle, but it will kill a pair of group 24 batteries in less than 3 hours at full power.

The Endura 40 ran only 3 hours on my boat, mostly at full speed. Any less and the boat would barely move.

We are only allowed electric motors here in non tidal waters, so the trolling motor is the only propulsion other than a pair of paddles.
My boat weighs in at about 750lbs with me, the motor, battery and tackle. Other than that its a bare aluminum boat. The 3HP has never completely killed the battery, it's never even come close. I also have an older 65T, which is only about 28lb thrust, that too will never tax the battery in anyway and I can run full power all day or more.

The Riptide sells for $499 at local shops, I got it for just over $300, but even at that price, which is still far more than what the old 3hp cost back then, I am very disappointed. I plan to just take the Riptide back and give up at this point, I picked up a second 3HP as a spare, it runs good too, and I have several other older motors which all run great. I just can't figure out whats up with these newer motors? Are they all this hard on the batteries? Did they change something I don't know about?

 

[Silvertip]

Re: New trolling motor, no battery life?

Since things are getting warm, I would check the size of the wiring and the distance from the battery to the motor. Wiring that is too small creates heat. Unfortunately, none of the motors you mention have the Maximizer circcuitry that the MinnKota PD has. The difference lies in how speed is controlled. Non-maximizer motors was energy on anything other than wide open whereas the Maximizer motors use pulse technology to control speed. At wide open settings both motors will consume the same power. If you are operating at wide open most of the time, them a 55# anything will likely kill the battery in 3 hours. For comparison purposes, I have a 50PD on a 17 foot walleye boat and a 55PD on an 18 foot pontoon. Both will run all day no sweat. But we are slow trolling for walleye and crappie so the Maximizer shines in that scenario. By the way, you said you connected two batteries in series. If you actually did that you were feeding that motor 24 volts which it not designed to run on. Two batteries in parallel provide 12 volts but provide increased run time because you have created one very large with two smaller ones.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: New trolling motor, no battery life?

Since things are getting warm, I would check the size of the wiring and the distance from the battery to the motor. Wiring that is too small creates heat. Unfortunately, none of the motors you mention have the Maximizer circcuitry that the MinnKota PD has. The difference lies in how speed is controlled. Non-maximizer motors was energy on anything other than wide open whereas the Maximizer motors use pulse technology to control speed. At wide open settings both motors will consume the same power. If you are operating at wide open most of the time, them a 55# anything will likely kill the battery in 3 hours. For comparison purposes, I have a 50PD on a 17 foot walleye boat and a 55PD on an 18 foot pontoon. Both will run all day no sweat. But we are slow trolling for walleye and crappie so the Maximizer shines in that scenario. By the way, you said you connected two batteries in series. If you actually did that you were feeding that motor 24 volts which it not designed to run on. Two batteries in parallel provide 12 volts but provide increased run time because you have created one very large with two smaller ones.

All but the 40 Endura have the Maximizer circuit, the RT55 lists it right on the box, as does the 3hp and the older 65T. I bought all of those new, I still have the original boxes for all of them. The Endura 40 isn't mine. I wouldn't buy a motor without the Maximizer circuitry.
The part I can figure out is that the 3Hp is nearly the same size motor as the RT55, they shouldn't be that far off in battery usage.

I am connecting these in parallel, that was a typo on my part there. Positive to positive, neg to neg. I used to do that for the 3Hp but found it wasn't necessary. I don't think three batteries would help the RT55.

Anyhow, I returned the RT55 today, life is too short to deal with problems like that. I'll just try something else or start hunting 3HP motors and do what I can to salt proof them. The RT looked like they just resin coated the circuit board and epoxy coated everything else.
I don't go in outright saltwater but figured it would be nice to have more than I needed as far as protection but so much for that.

I talked to another guy there that was returning a smaller regular motor, saying he was going back to his old 65T since the $189 he spent was a waist since he couldn't get a days fishing out of two batteries.

With the 3HP I found that carrying the second battery actually hurt me more than helped since the added weight slowed the boat enough to work the motor that much harder.

There a gas motor ban in freshwater here, other than a few rivers and a few larger lakes, it's electric only. The one area I fish often is huge but under the gas motor ban. The current is super strong in one part, a feed creek which leads to another pond with the best fishing. Only the largest trolling motors will pull through that upstream but the run also can't kill your batteries or else you'll be stuck paddling about 5 miles back to the launch, mostly against the current. Years ago we used to carry a long rope, and tie off at the start of the heavy current, then pull the boat back by hand just to save the batteries. When the Maximizer and the 3HP came out, is solved the problem. But even the 3HP is running full bore to make it back. Add a little wind and your in trouble. When going there, I carry three batteries in the larger boat, two running connected, the other just in case to get back on if we kill the two batteries getting out of the creek.

So far, the 3HP has never killed the batteries, but I wouldn't try doing it twice without a recharge or a spare battery. For most lakes and ponds, a single group 24 deep cycle works fine.

I guess I'll be lost when I run out of 3HP motors, I'd have to carry 6 batteries to get by with that RT55. Here's the link to the motor I tried and returned.
http://www.minnkotamotors.com/products/motors/detail.asp?pg=stm_riptide
It does list digital Maximizer even online.
One thing I was really not very fond of is the new all plastic height adjuster and steering tension ring. They stripped out after only one time out. My older motors have never had a problem with the aluminum threads. I also didn't like how they used a friction surface right against the composite shaft. I wasn't able to get any of the newer motors tight enough to keep them at the right height. My buddies Endura 40 has a custom made stop to adjust it's height, he said his stripped out the same way. I was sadly disappointed in the quality of the newer motors.

I don't run a bow mount motor due to the many obstacles where I fish, (8' is considered a deep lake here, most are only 2 or 3' deep. A transom mount motor takes the occasional hit far better without doing either motor or hull damage. I have one smaller motor with a home made bump guard or extended skeg for the real high risk ponds.