Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Trolling battery...

I hate lugging a deep cycle marine battery around. At 73 I have called it quits! But, I repair gym equipment at health clubs. I have found that I can power a 36lb trust motor,, at full speed for just over an hour, with a 4.5lb Zeuss 12v, rechargeable lead, acid enclosed battery. I'm talking 2-3 hrs out on local reservoirs..... never an hr run time. Cheap senior rate 14' john boat, rental,. That has been a bear to lower an 80lb battery into.
Any reason with a backup Zeuss same, that this wouldn't work?

I cannot tell from your post just exactly which battery you intend to use. There are a lot of place to buy the small sealed lead-acid batteries in the general 12 volt 8 amp hour batteries cheaply, as low as $8-$10 each. Using one to full depletion is not going to kill it and even would it shorten the life substantially, you have so little into it that it wouldn't matter much.

The reason for a big heavy deep cycle battery is to gain the advantages of a the heavy plates inside to stand up to the thermal stress involved with heavey charge and discharge currents. A 36 lb thrust electric is not going to draw that king of current so you have half the problem that doesn't need solving. I solved the charging half by buying a 100 watt solar panel and keeping it connected while am out on the water. The battery I used was a small starting battery that goes in a Honda Civic. That battery is about 1/2 the weight of a standard deep cycle battery. I just bungee the panel onto the middle seat and I wind up with a "table" in the middle. Works superbly.I fish much larger water and a local river where I use the little troller for all it's worth and never had to hook a charger to it.all summer. I never ran out of battery on the water either. If you only ever use it for short periods the Panel with a regulator is the best way to charge any battery because it will not supply enough current to stress the battery unless you start using flashlight batteries.

I would seriously consider using a small car starting battery in this manner or a decent quality lawn tractor starting battery which is smaller and lighter yet, and will cost about what you probably paid for the Zeus. I have found that the much smaller load placed on batteries by fuel injected small cars tends to make the batteries much more likely to last 8-10 years than the much larger and much more heavily used batteries like e used to use in V8 engines. This extended life is because they start so much easier thus drawing much less out of the battery which means the charge current is much lower also. With the solar panel in the boat the system works the same way!

Hey, great ideas. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your experience and thoughts. I got a couple Zeus batteries laying around, so for the time being, I'll give em a try. I love your solar panel idea. ....Thanks again

I think that the Zeus likely will not last long enough without some help. The 36 lb troller will draw pretty heavy and if you have to fight wind it will probably eat the battery pretty fast. The next size up probably will not be enough either unless you use two in parallel. The solar panel with the small car starter battery will work, but if you use it hard for more time you can get it pretty well discharged. I have gotten into the habit of holding position in heavy wind and fast water and it seems to work OK. I have had it discharge fairly far down, but it doesn't take long for the panel to bring it back. If you go the panel route there are a lot on ebay and prices are pretty low. Just be careful of the size.

You could join two lighter deep cycle batteries in parallel. This which you give you the combined amperage giving you longer running time.