Minn Kota

I was thinking about buying a Minn Kota. I was wondering if you can use a regular car battery for it. And can you use a regular battery charger for the Minn Kota battery? If anyone has one and can help, I would appreciate it.

[Phish_on]

I have a MK that's about 6 years old now, it's been great. Really nice until the wind kicks up, I should have busted out a few more dollars and got a little more "thrust" - my boat is pretty heavy (wood).

You can use a regular car battery, but the better choice is a "deep cycle" battery - it will last a lot longer. I just replaced my first one and bought a bigger model. Again, it lasts even longer. It's good for a morning and evening fish, then I usually try to recharge it - which could be a pain on a long-term camping outing.

I use a regular car battery as a backup. Donated by a mechanic friend ...

I use a regular Sears battery charger, seems to hold a charge longer if I leave it on the 2-amp setting and let it "trickle" for a good long time (24 hours seems to do it)

More questions ? ? ?

How much thrust is enough? My boat is 16 feet of Aluminum. According to Minn Kota I would need about 21 pounds of thrust. I was looking at a 50 pound model at Joes.
Would a battery last only one season? Or longer?
I want to be able to fish the Wheeler area, some lakes, maybe the Willamette for Springies, mouth of the Sandy, stuff like that. Am I going to be able too? Thanks!



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LW

[Wet_Willy]

LW, 50# of thrust should push your boat around pretty well. Wind, amount of gear/people in your boat will be a factor. The 50# models are right at the limit of 12 vs 24 volt so they will suck the juice quicker. I would suggest investing in a deep-cycle battery since you will be charging it over and over. Car batteries don't last long when you drain them down over and over.

[Phish_on]

My first deep-cycle battery lasted 5 years. Granted, I don't go fishing every weekend

but I also had a tendency to run it all the way to death ... I heard that's not so good battery-life-wise.

I actually used mine for an hour or so out in the Columbia this weekend, until the tide and wind kicked in. I tried it once in the Willamette in pretty strong current - quite inadequate ! Those are the times I wish for a nice new kicker, about 4hp - - but wealth is not a characteristic of me ! But, trolling in wind and/or current is not easy with any motor, eh?

Nice to have power to spare, running the electric on full-speed does drain the battery pretty fast. For fair-weather fishing, I love the MK, quiet and starts right up.

[Friskyou]

Minnkota says if your going to fish in salty water.. Wheeler would count at high. you have to get there more expensive SaltWater model.... Anyone been abusing there's in salt water for years??

Good Q Friskyou, does anyone have experience with a non-salt worthy model in the salt?
I think I may go get one, thanks all!

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LW

[garyk]

Oh man, this is my topic....
Until about 6 years ago we used a 7-foot wood pram to fish Tillamook tidewater; usually trolling. We used a 36# MinnKota and a deep cycle battery - about 780 amp/hour I believe. Running at about 2/3rds throttle we could get maybe 4 hours time. Wide open was 2.5 hours running time. MinnKota has the formula for calculating how many amp/hours you draw at x-foot-pounds of thrust, (it's a horsepower calculation - basic physics). Regarding corrosion, it was not a problem - our motor did have the graphite shaft. Our little battery driven pram got a lot of laughs - until we consistantly caught more fish than most others. Now, if we could only catch a single fish in our new 17' Hewescraft?!
P.S. When fishing electric motors, do be sure to always have your oars and anchor.

[cts258]

get a deep cycle battery it will last longer
I have a 28lb minn kota and it pushes my 16ft boat real nice
I use 2 batterys 1 for the motor and accesories and 1 for the the trolling motor. I have a switch on mine so I can charge the battery for the trolling motor when I run the main motor and shut it off when I use the trolling motor so it wont drain the main battery. This setup works great and I never have to charge my batterys
I get 4 to 5 years out of my batterys

[Mr. Fisherman]

LW,

I would strongly recomend a deep cycle battery. You will also get substantially more life from your battery by buying two and running them all the way down. Batteries develope a "memory" and if you use them for 4 or 6 hours and recharge them over and over pretty soon 4 to 6 hours is the most you will get out of them. By having two batteries you can get he most from each one. You can run one all the way down to maximize the life span and then switch to the other fresh battery to get you back to the dock or fish your way back. As mentioned above, always have oars or paddles available and a good anchor.

Hope this helps. Good luck.


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Live to Fish
Fish to Live

Sounds like 50 pounds of thrust and two batteries is the way to go. Thanks all.

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LW

[Quick Fish]

Leaky,
I,m using a 42# thrust MK on a 16 foot Starcraft aluminum boat. It works great. I troll Multnomah Channel for springers and also troll the lakes for trout. I can troll 8-10 hours on a large deep cycle battery running at about 50% power. I would recommend purchasing a MK with a maximizer as it increases the amount of time you can get out of a battery. You can tell if a motor has one if it has infinite speed adjustments as opposed to 5 forward speeds and 3 reverse "clicks". I also keep 2 deep cycles in the boat so that I can fish an entire weekend without needing to recharge -- just like having an extra gas tank. Buy the highest amp-hour rated batteries you can get for the longest running.

QF