Electric pontoon setup

[CrossCutters]

Hi

I have some questions that I am trying to get sorted out to get my boat back on the water.  My main engine is done so I am looking at an affordable option to be able to get out and still use the boat while my wife and I save up for either a new boat or new outboard. I have a setup off of another pontoon that used to be all electric due to the lake it was on.  The set up is 2 80 lbs thrust trolling motors 24 volt systems.  First question is going to be do I need 4 batteries to make this work or will 2 do the job to run both motors?  Next question is (and I know it depends on weight and wind and a lot of other things) what should my run time be or how long should I be able to be on the water?  Reasons for my questions are the boat we got the duel trolling motor setup off of just ran 2 batteries (24 volts) to both motors at the same time.  If I get 2 more batteries and hook up one motor to each 24 volt set up I understand that I should double my time on the water.  But without having an outboard motor and not having any experience with trolling motors only as a mode of power im just trying to figure out how long I might be able to go before recharging.  The boat is a 20 ft pontoon with no deck seating.  Only furniture on the boat is the steering console.  All aluminum flooring.  So very light weight considering the size of boat.

[MN Fisher]

If it's a MinnKota - max draw is 56amps. A quad of 100 AH wet-cell batteries is going to give you just under 1 hour of max-power run time - you don't want to draw those batteries below 50%...if they're AGMs, about 1.3 hours...Lithiums will extend that to 1.6 hours.

 

Half those times if you run only two batteries.

 

You're also not going to go very fast. My 14' canoe (400lbs loaded with me and gear) with a 30# TM maxes out at 2.8mph...use that as an benchmark.

 

I'd suggest that you find a way to get a replacement gas motor...electric motors aren't very efficient unless you want to load your deck with a bank of batteries (a dozen or so).

[CrossCutters]

I have a 12 v trolling motor on the pontoon as well that we used while fishing before my outboard went out and we could fish all day for multiple days using it to move around the banks and it pulled my pontoon very well with no issues but it was not dedicated as my main mode of travel.  So that is all I have to compare to.

[MN Fisher]

1 minute ago, CrossCutters said:

I have a 12 v trolling motor on the pontoon as well that we used while fishing before my outboard went out and we could fish all day for multiple days using it to move around the banks and it pulled my pontoon very well with no issues but it was not dedicated as my main mode of travel.  So that is all I have to compare to.

Were you running that TM full out all the time though?

 

If I'm just tooting around at speed 2-3, I can get get a few trips out of my 75AH battery. But if I power it at 5-speed to get someplace - I've got 35 minutes of run-time before I need to recharge.

[CrossCutters]

With my pontoon at the lakes we fish on we are always adjusting our position mainly because of the roof that is on it acting as a sail even in the slightest of breeze.  (Which for this setup the roof is coming off) but all day fishing the banks and then when we would get to the end of a run in the cove we were in if we got bit good then we would go full speed back to the beginning of the run and do it again.  So not all day on high but a lot of run time in the run of a day to stay in the position we wanted to stay in.