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I just bought new Cabelas AGM deep cycle batteries for my trolling motor. I brought my old wet-cell Interstate batteries in to get them checked when I was having problems with my Ulterra, come to find out the batteries were fine but the breaker was bad. However, in doing so I tipped one of the batteries over causing acid to leak out. What a mess to clean up, baking soda and water all over. Now there's white stuff all over the interior of my boat. Plus, when I opened up the batteries water level cap recently to check the water level, liquid sprayed out. Luckily I was wearing safety glasses and none of it hit my face. After that I was done with wet-cell batteries forever and bought AGM sealed batteries instead. The automotive industry has used sealed batteries for years, I can't recall seeing a car with a wet-cell battery. Why doesn't the marine boating industry all go to AGM sealed batteries as standard and phase out wet-cell batteries like the automotive industry did (the price would quickly come down on them)? Just like cheaper boat trailers use hubs that have to be consistently greased and higher end boat trailer hubs do not, we could go to a standard maintenance free hub like high end boat trailers and the price would eventually come down also. Just like backup cameras in vehicles that are now mandatory by state law, all cars have backup cameras now and the cost went from thousands to included in the price of the vehicle.

Someone let me know if this is connected properly and will work and if not what is wrong with it? I dont want to ruin anything so im seeking help first. Note there is no power to the yakpower system and idk if that is needed or not for the plug in to function I was told it shouldn't matter as long as u have a battery for the trolling motor. Any help greatly appreciated ?! https://photos.app.goo.gl/6DqQ3FcnQ4v7T3CU6 https://photos.app.goo.gl/ewh5rgAhDB5A3nJMA https://photos.app.goo.gl/BFM8CNcWd5faspj78 https://photos.app.goo.gl/R5faWNxqAMgYiiRT8 https://photos.app.goo.gl/EKxa3fKVP7tWwPT38

https://photos.app.goo.gl/bWAFzRiZReFdLLtT6 Is this meant to connect to my trolling motor somehow or is it for the yakpower system? If anyone knows the particular name of this piece pls let me know. Trying to hook up trolling motor and the connections fit the fuse/breaker but not the terminals on the battery. Minnkota 55lb thrust comes with tiny connectors that won't fit one the battery posts. https://photos.app.goo.gl/f4ofvXXPhYDjJ5286

I disconnected my boat's starting/cranking battery and when I went to put the new battery in I realized that there was a 3rd wire that seems to come from toward the front of the boat. I connected the 2 wires from the motor, red and black, and it worked. So I don't know where this 3rd wire (black) is from (left disconnected). Is it from the boat's battery gauge, and if it is, does it go on the positive or negative terminal? I know it's not for a charger as I have that disconnected.

I had an unsealed deep cycle battery tip inside my boat last year causing battery acid to go everywhere. I swore I'd never have that issue again so I bought 2 Cabelas brand sealed AGM deep cycle batteries. Fortunately they happen to go on sale when I needed them and I got them for around $100 I believe. Now I need a new marine starting battery and only want to go sealed. I can't find any from Cabelas. I have a 2014 Stratus VLO with a 2014 Evinrude 115 horse Etec. How many cold cranking amps do I need? What is the best value sealed (maintenance free) marine starting battery out there? I'm hoping to find something in the $100 price range if that is realistic/possible. I see Lowe's carry's Deka sealed marine starting batteries for $107 with 800 cold cranking amps. I do get 10% off at Lowe's being a military veteran, so there's that, if that is a good choice.

Had problems with my TM last year and had the batteries checked at Batteries Plus. They were fine, problem ended up being the circuit breaker. After that the trolling motor, a 2017 Minn Kota Ulterra worked fine rest of the season with the same batteries. They are Interstate deep cycles from 2014. Now this year I'm having problems with the Autopilot and Spotlock not working but the TM will still work for hours without those features. Whenever I tried the features I got a set of chirps/beeps and that feature wouldn't work. I charged the batteries with my other charger rather than the onboard Minn Kota charger and got the features to work again although only for about 10-15 minutes. I assumed it was the batteries. The TM continued working again without those features for hours. One the batteries on the onboard charger batteries always goes to solid green (full charge) and one always flashes green. I checked the water in the batteries and one is definitely low. I can see the top of the plates by about a 1/2" inch. The water in the other battery is fine. Note: I do keep my batteries plugged into the onboard charger all year long and it is in a warm pole-barn all year long. Can I put more distilled water in this battery and it will work or is it ruined now?

I had a Dual Pro Professional in my last boat for 7 years and it worked great. It charged 3 old batteries that it never should have charged for 7 years. They were odd batteries. One was an old battery from Comcast, one was an new battery that sat on the concrete floor of my father's pole barn for years, and the third I don't know where it came from. Out of those 3 batteries, two were from the previous boat owner and the third was from me. That Dual Pro kept them working for 7 years though, I never had to replace batteries in that boat. Ranger also puts these chargers in their boats which is a confidence booster. Also, I think the Dual Pro has 15 amps per bank which would charge the batteries faster than the others which are 10 amp per bank, no? My current boat has a cheaper Minn Kota charger. Not the higher end Precision charger that has the equalize cell feature. I have 2 batteries that are 4 years old and most likely need replacing. However, if I could equalize them perhaps I could get another year out of them rather than replacing them which would be nice. NOCO brand chargers are widely regarded on this forum as being compact and reliable. The Dual Pro's are fairly large, however they take space up vertically, so their footprint may actually be smaller than some of the other flatter chargers. I know that Dual Pro, NOCO, and Minn Kota are 3 of the biggest names out there in onboard charging but feel free to add others that I didn't add. So out of these chargers which is: 1.) Best 2.) Best bang for your buck I'm not sure if the NOCO does but it would be nice if the NOCO and Dual Pro had the equalize cell feature that the cheaper Minn Kota does. Also, if the Minn Kota Precision chargers can equalize cells why isn't this an option with the other more expensive brands?

okay guys im looking to redo my v hull aluminum boat this winter, i plan on running 3 things on board, a 12v 1100gph bilge, a helix 5 g2 gps and either a minn kota traxxis 45 or a traxxis 55. my question for everyone here is what do you think the best setup would be battery wise? I'm completely in the dark I don't really know what would be needed. I know the draw on the helix 5 is 600mA so if someone could point me in the right direction or at least give me a hand figuring it out i would be quite grateful

Hello friends, this is my first boat, and I am figuring it out as I go. I have two live wells in the bow of my boat (1993 monark 1700DC). I would like to convert one of them to a battery storage for a trolling motor. The plan is to disconnect the fill pump (it's a tee fitting I will replace with an elbow fitting). I will put a plug in for the drain to keep any water out. Has anyone ever done this modification before? Any tips or suggestions. I don't want to ruin a couple batteries due to ignorance. Thank you in advance!

okay im looking to add some electronics to my jon boat i have an old shakespear trolling motor and i want to add a helix 5 di my question is what kind of battery should i be looking at to run all of this if i only want to have one on board? or should i be getting 2 and running the helix off the smaller one?

First time posting in a while! [edit: I guess this is my first post under this name! all of my other posts came from the alias Castamasta] I might be the most excited I have been for fishing in a long time. Primarily because i will have my first boat! But, as the title of this forum explains, it is a small jon boat...........still a boat though! First, I wanted to see what you guys have done with your smaller jon boats. Especially with regards to how you rigged your electronics and organized your batteries. I know there is the thread with "show your ride", but I wanted this to be solely smaller craft / jon. Second, id like some input on what I am currently thinking of doing for my configuration from all your small boaters / jon boaters out there. Any advice (even if it is..."come on man, get a bigger boat!") is welcome! Here is what I am working with: tracker 1232 riveted jon (http://www.trackerboats.com/boat/specs.cfm?boat=3829) two 12V batteries 2x battery box 55 lb minn kota trolling motor humminbird helix 5 si gps 3 amp fuse 2 x rotating foam seats w bench clamps 1 x bait monkey Concerns / inexperience: Weight balance - I am thinking of putting one battery in the mid section of the boat and one in the back to balance the weight a bit. Do you guys see this as necessary due to how small the boat is? I want to be clean with cable management, but there aren't too many locations to hide the wires (just stuff it in the box is what I am thinking). Wondering if this baby will sink if I put two people in it.....from the specs it kind of seems that that will be the case. Battery charging - I am thinking of buying one of the portable chargers for like $60 at bass pro. Anything that I could put on board that someone would recommend? Ideally, I would want to just keep the batteries in place and be able to run an extension cord to my boat to charge the batteries, but that seems expensive ($150).....but kinda worth it. Transducer mounting - If I am going to be using the trolling motor as my main thrust, I was thinking that a TM mount would not be ideal due to how much error steering will cause. Is this the correct thinking? Instead, I was going to get some silicone sealant and just drill the transducer right into the transom and seal it up. Other option would be to suction cup it....which might be good as well. Again, I want to see what you guys have out there first, so I can potentially steal some ideas. if you can steer me in the right direction with some of the stuff i have outlined above, that would be great too! Thanks, Casta

Hey guys, currently decided to purchase a new cranking battery to run my lowrance units and engine off of. I decided i want it to definitely be an AGM battery, and i know it needs to be high cca but i don't know which brands are good. Looking for stuff under $500. Thanks!

Ok so our trolling motor was being worked on, and we borrowed a buddy's 55 lb trolling motor (never again.) I'm new to boat fishing. I know a full charged battery right off the charger will read 13ish and in like a day it will be down to around the normal 12.6. So we ran it from 6-12 and I tested the battery and it read 12.20 when we were finished. Battery was at 12.5 in the beginning of the day. When should I charge this battery and when is a battery considered dead, and needs a charge? Our other trolling motor is a 75 lb and requires both, so I will charge both to full charge before we use that again. Thanks

Today was the first day out on the water with our "new" boat. It's only powered by a trolling motor. It is a Motorguide Varimax 24v 75lb thrust motor and I have two EverStart Maxx Marine 29 deep cycle twelve volt batteries. We were out for about 2 hours (first time with batteries and trolling motor, they are all new) and the motor stopped working. The digital display on the trolling motor still worked, but the motor did not function. The circuit was correct and clean. I went home and charged the one battery and once complete I used a multimeter and got a reading of about 13.30 right after charging, the battery that was not charged yet gave a reading of about 12.4 (I thought 12.6 was normal.) When we hooked both of them up to the charger it showed a low battery percentage, but the volts were still "normal" (according to my multimeter), I assume. I am charging the second battery right now. What do you think my problem is the battery or motor, what should I do? We had to be towed back in on our first day on the boat...what fun. Also I'm using a DieHard charger on a fast 10a charge, is this correct or do I need a different charger/setting. Also do Deep Cycle batteries lose there charges and how fast. Do I need something to maintain the battery at all times? Sorry for all of the questions, I'm kind of agitated and freaking out since it had to happen the first time ever out. Thanks, Zach

I have two Optima deep cycle marine batteries and a starting battery for my motor in my boat I recently purchased used. I've noticed the life of the Optima batteries hooked up to my trolling motor and fish finder may be on the tail end of their life. They last me all day when coming off of a fresh charge, but they do not appear to hold a charge. I'm not sure what is acceptable in terms of loss of charge over time in storage, but my batteries are usually completely dead one week sitting after being fully charged. I have an onboard battery charger for all the batteries, but due to storage needs I can't have it plugged in at all times. Last week I left the boat charger plugged in after I parked it. I returned one week later and noticed that the on board charger had a green light for fully charged, as it should be since I left it plugged in. Well I take the boat out and the all items running off the deep cycle batteries are dead..the trolling motor turns the prop maybe 1/32 of a turn and stops. The fish finder beeps when turned on but does not have enough juice to show anything on the screen. The motor battery is ok but of course that's a different type of battery. I know the batteries aren't great, but when left plugged in, they shouldn't be completely dead...So: 1. is it possible that the charger is able to conduct an immediate charge but fails to kick into maintenance mode as it should be doing? The light on the charger indicates the batteries are 100% after a week of sitting, but if I unplug it and plug it back in, it shows red again for charging/not fully charged. 2. Also, how long should I expect my deep cycle charge to last when sitting in storage unmaintained by charger?

Good morning and Happy Easter to you all! I've been having issues with getting enough use out of trolling motor, and I usually run out of trolling motor based on the wind having to turn the speed up on my trolling motor too many times to keep on my spot. After getting all 3 batteries tested (yes 3...2 in the back run parallel for the electronics and live well for whatever reason...bought it this way) and one in the front which is a duracell marine deep cycle 29hm series (1 year old) I have been given the idea that my Minnkota Edge 55lb trolling motor (12V) just isn't enough for my boat. (1989 basstracker aluminum v hull tournament V17). One idea is to add another battery and keep it on hand (adding more weight) meaning having 4 batteries in the boat. moving the second battery from the back and using that for the back up selling my current trolling motor and getting a 24 volt system. I'm not rich, but if I need to do it, then that's my only real option. So if I do go with option #3, what trolling motor would you recommend? I would like to get Minnkota preferrably. Thanks in advance! Jeff