Trolling motors and batteries

[Captain Ed]

Going to get a new troll motor for the bow of 19 ft fbrglass nitro by tracker. Going for 70 lb thrust for rivers. A friend recommended motor guide. I would be grateful for some opinions. 12 volt vs 24. Gel cell vs conventional battery? I don't mind spending more for reliable quality. Thanks for any help

[adriancretired]

i dont think they make that high of thrust trolling motor for 12 volts, but i could be wrong. i have a 70 pound thrust motorguide trolling motor on a basstracker 185 aluminum. plenty of trust for the river but on high speed it wants to torque the foot petal, if its not pointing straight ahead. i have had an optima starting battery for years, and in my opinion theres not a better battery for a starting battery. ive not had any experiance with the optima trolling batteries. ive got a 90 hp mercury, and the starting battery is 10 years old. sits out in the cold, i dont have a garage. my friend has a 200 hp optimax , and he got 8 years out of his optima starting battery. his was out in the cold too

[otis44]

I would think you would definitely want a 24v trolling motor. I personally wouldn't turn my hand for the difference between an Motorguide and a Minn Kota. I would use whichever brand's control set up suited you best.

As far as batteries I have had a good experience with the Duracell Agm's that you can get at Sam's club. I'm on my 5th year with two of them in my boat and they seem to perform about as good as new. I have a friend who used 6 of them to power an inverter system in a houseboat and he got 7 years out of them. I paid around 150 bucks or so each for them and they may be a little higher now, but if I had to replace mine I would use them again without question.

[Captain Ed]

Thanks so much! Really great to get this kind of help. Hope 2017 is a memorable year for your fishing adventures and you haven't jinxed your good fortune re batteries. Pretty impressive longevity. 😎

[aps71285]

Last season I bought the minn kota terrova 80 lbs thrust. Best purchase I've ever made. Just the remote feature alone is worth every penny I paid. It's mounted on a 18ft flat bottom Jon boat with a custom bow shooting deck in the front and on high speed I can go around 4.5mph.

[Captain Ed]

Haven't pulled out the wallet yet. 80 lbs and a remote would get me into the 21st century. I think I deserve it and might get the wife to operate it. Thanks for the input.

[The Legend]

I have an 82lb Motorguide Digital Tour with conventional batteries. I have a couple buddies with MinnKota Fortrex and optima batteries and I love their setups, but finances keep me from upgrading. I've spent a lot of time in their boats and running their trolling motors too. The Fortrex is much easier to pull up and lower down and the Optima batteries are great for trolling in heavy winds/current all day along with running large graphs.

[Les Young]

Definitley get the 24 volt in at least 70 pounds. Current can take a toll in a days time so always charge when you get home from lake to keep in good shape & check them every month or two to see how the water is in them if going agm & if low top off with distilled water.

[SteveM4A1]

I don't like to bash any brand, but I would personally stay away from Optima batteries. I went through 6 different blue tops in 3 years before I made the switch. Never could figure out the issue and neither could Optima. Lots of time spent on the issue and chargers and finally gave up and went back to wet cell. No issues since. Plenty of guys run them and have good luck, but I didn't.