Thread: Battery power consumption question

Originally Posted by Wannabe...

I've got a MK Max 74 and 2 Group 27s to power it. My boat (aluminum) will cut about 1.8 to 2.0 mph at 40% with it. The question is, how long should I expect to be able to maintain that speed on constant before the batteries give up.

I kind of know the answer already - about 2 - 2.5 hours with my current batteries, but I'm wondering how long I could expect out of a fresh set of batteries. Mine are about 1 year old now, but truth be told, they are mismatched as I added the second after I bought the boat.


Group 31s are not an option for me unless I mount them somwhere other than the back.


Wannabe...

My first question would be; Why are you trolling so fast? 1.8-2.0 ??? I usually troll anywhere from 0.5- 1.2. I had a similar boat w/1 batt for tm, added another one and could pull jigs for 2 days without recharging. Tm was a 55lb mk maxx, 12 volt. 2- 29group interstate batts, 17.5 alum boat. Sounds like one of your batts may be going bad. I would check them before I did anything. You probably just need a couple of good batts.

Trolling Cranks Uncle. I can go 2 days spider rigging with the current batts, dropping the TM down to about 20% and I'll cut around .8 to 1.1 depending.

My dilema is that I don't want to be stuck at the helm trolling with the O/B, I'd rather do it with the TM. But, I'm not sure if I'm asking two much out of a good set of batteries and I don't want to replace mine prematurely since they do fine for every other task I ask of them. In addition, I hate to drop 150-400, depending, only to find out that 2 brand new Group 29s aren't up to the task either.

Haven't really figured out what to do yet. But I'm studying on it.

Wannabe...

Wannabe, I kinda hestate to say much, but I've always run either 27
or 29 series Delco voyagers and seem to be getting much more run time
than that.

You can't really count what I was doing this wkend, pushing with the 8 horse
and steering with the tm - even tho the tm is set on 40-50 percent,
I don't think it is seeing the normal amp draw because the gas motor is
providing 99 percent of the speed, tm is just keeping up and steering.
Anyway, I can do that for two or three days if need be.

Now earlier this year, I pulled some in shallow water with tm only, from
1.5 to 1.8 mph and I know I fished 5-6 hours a few times and still had
two out of four leds lit up on the battery gage

I know I've spider-rigged into the wind, running tm on 60-70 percent
just to hold still for similar times too.

Yeah J, that's what I'm thinking two. The mismatch in the batteries is coming back to haunt me I think. One is a top quality Deka, the other is a parts house brand cheapo. I figure one is pulling the other down and robbing me of run time. Just trying to figure out with some certainty what I could reasonably expect out of a fresh, matched pair of quality batts and whether I could reasonably expect to get 2 or 3 years out of them using them 6 hours at a time like that for 3 to 4 months of the year.

I'm kind of coming to the conclusion, that without going to 31s, I'd be asking too much of the 29s or they wouldn't hold up for many seasons doing that to them and I'd be better off figuring out how to troll with the O/B.

Anyway, thanks for ya'lls help and helping me think it through.

Wannabe...