Trolling motor/Power problem

[Marchosia]

Alright I have a motorguide tour 82 lbs thrust trolling motor, that ive had about a year now an having a problem with the power..

Heres the thing, I went to the lake about a 3 weeks ago and noticed that when I put the trolling motor down into the water it was like it lost alot of thrust/power, bring it up and it works just fine out of the water. After fishing for about 4 or 5 hours I was fed up with it an came home, an noticed a few days later that the plug that I have plugged up into the house for the extension cord that plugs up my onboard battery charger wasn't plugged up, I figured that it wasn't plugged up an batteries wasn't charged like I thought so i checked the water in the batteries an everything, an even plugged up a battery charger to them, an they were at 93% charged, two batteries that are no older than 4-6 months.

So this leads me to yesterday, I went fishing and made sure that the batteries was fully charged the day before an left them on the charger till I left yesterday morning to head to the lake, an of course the trolling motor had full power, so I get in the lake an put the motor down an it does it again, like it just looses power, like going back to my old 55lb trolling motor speed wise all the way turned up.. So I went out today an checked all the connections an everything has 24v's like its suppose to an all the seals to the motor itself has extra sealant that I have added to the outside to keep water from getting into it.

So my question is since I have had it I have had no problems with the power, except that when I first got it I had to unplug an plug it back up to get it to work an have yet to have a problem with that since".. So what is causing the motor to loose the power when down in the water like that? TIA

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Trolling motor/Power problem

Sounds like you have a loose or corroded connection. Is there a way to check the voltage at the TM when you have it under load? The 24V you are seeing at rest could quickly drop off under load if there is a bad connection. Check the battery, breaker(fuse), plug and motor connections, make sure they are all clean and tight.

You could also have a bad battery failing under load. While it's not common for a 4-6 month old battery to go bad, it does happen.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Trolling motor/Power problem

Put the motor in the water and THEN measure voltage. A battery can measure full charge at rest but when placed under load drops like a rock. It may also be that your charger is not charging both batteries equally or perhaps just not functioning normally.