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HELP! Trolling Motor / Battery issues


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Alright all, my trolling motor / battery woes continue. Here is my issue: I just replcaed two Mega Tron batteries because I thought they were shot and then I spent a pretty penny and went with two Optima D3M baterries to power my trolling motor. I just got back from Devils and I thought I had run the batteries low from the trolling motor use. So, I just went and put my little 1.5 amp trickle charger on one of the batteries and it says "Trouble." This is exactly what happened to my Mega Tron batteries. What's going on? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I just brought my 12 amp charger up and it appears that the battery is initially taking a charge. How can I tell if the battery is shot? And also, my trolling motor is about a 10 year old motor guide. Is there a chance that the trolling motor is killing my batteries? Any ideas would be hugely appreciated.

Also, I'm new to all of this battery charging stuff really. What kind of a tool do I need to get in order to tell the amount of charge currently on the battery? Again, thanks for any and all help on this!

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Pick up an amp checker. It is like a battery checker but a lot more accurate. It tells you how many amps your battery has. That is the single best way to check. It can check all kinds of different size batteries. Cost should be in the $45 range -- but you will pay for it over and over.

How old is your trolling motor? My guess is that it is your trickle-charger that is having trouble, but the amp-checker will tell you for sure.

Let us know how it's going.

Hit

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Yeah, it's a cheap little 1.5 Amp trickle charger - That may be the problem. I brought my 12 Amp charger upstairs and hooked it up to the battery and it seemed to be taking a charge. My old Mega Tron batteries would make the light on my 12 Amp charger flicker and the charger itself says that a flickering light means "Desulfation" or "Desulfication" or something like that (Aka - your battery is shot!) Anyways, I hope that the optima doesn't have the flickering light when I get back home from work... Yikes! What does "Desulfation" mean anyways?

Thanks for the help!

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Keeps jiggling your connections as well. When you get a little rust on them it does not make a good connection. Keep on jiggling!

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Will do!!

Well - I put a nice charge on both of the optimas and hauled them back downstairs (I live in an APT, yikes!). Those are some heavy batteries! Anyways, I hooked them up and the trolling motor was crankin away. Let's just hope that crank lasts on the next fishing trip...

Hitman, I think you were right about my trickle charger. It may be the wrong one for those optimas. The 12 Amp charger may be the one I will stick with for the Optimas...

The funny part is, I also have another 12 Volt battery that I run my electronics off of and that takes a charge just fine with the trickle charger... That one's a lead acid battery though where the Optimas are gell cells. Must make a difference somehow...

ALSO! I had a small little portable (the one where you have to put C batteries in it) Eagle depth finder that I rigged up front by the trolling motor to go off the battery in back. It just went out on me this past weekend as well for no good reason. I checked all of the wires and the fuse out and it was fine. I took the module over to Skeels and they tested it and just the backlight turns on momentarily and then nothin... I just opened the thing up and evrything looks good. Any ideas for that by chance before I go and get the LMS - 520C (me likey!!)..?

Thanks for the "jiggling" help!

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Call Xish Xectronics in Fridley, MN they can help you a heck uva lot better than anyone at skeels. X = L. If they say it's screwed. . . then it is.

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Bison, my Brother --

Stay away from the internal GPS -- I have heard some bad stories already about the new ones I had the 332i and had big problems with the first one but the second worked better. I would wait till they have had a couple of good years on the market.

My charger has the 1.5/12 amp switch on it and I love it.

Hang in there!

Hit.

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What is the recommended charging schedule for trolling motor batteries? Always fully recharge after every use? Run them down first?

Thanks,

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I charge them almost all of the time after every use. Before I had the on-board charger I would wait till they were dead to re-charge -- mainly because they are very heavy.

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Hitman,

yeah, that's what I have been hearing about those onboard GPS modules... In any event, before the opener, I am probably going to just install another cheep Eagle... Works for me!

Hey, Good Luck to all for the opener!!

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