trolling motor/battery

im gonna go buy a motor and battery today i think, wanting a 40# thrust because the 30# MK motors only have 30 inch shafts and i want a longer shaft...

whats a good starting point for a battery? im not paying for an Optima, would like to keep it fairly cheap, just using it for this year likely then will go another route next year...

also, if anyone has a 40,50, or 55 # thrust motor (good shape please) for a decent price and you see this within an hour or so and want to sell it, im interested...

Get a good battery charger/maintainer. It will make the battery last a lot longer and keep it at full charge for whenever you want to go. With the good ones you just leave the battery hooked up all the time in the garage.

The other hugely useful aspect of the good chargers/maintainers is that when you hook up a battery after a fishing session it will tell you what the charge is at. This will allow you to actually know how much use you can get out of the battery before it dies on the water. After going out and trolling for 4 hours it is nice to see how much juice you had left for next time out in case you want to fish 6 hours.

The last few years I am really starting to appreciate a good electric motor setup and a small light boat you can drop into any lake, especially without a boat launch, and than slow cruising, watching the wildlife, and hopefully catching some really nice trout.

I'm exploring a similar deal for my drift boat but after talking to numerous friends who have the same, it looks I'll be looking at something in the 24 volt(2 battery) 70-80lb thrust dept. Everyone I've talked to and everything I've read says spend the money on a good charger for the reasons stated above.

I have a question though. If I go with a 24 volt, 2 battery setup, how do you go about keeping them "maintained" with one charger?

I think I have 3 or 4 of them. I don't need but 1.

fp

Just went with the 30 for now, I can find a 50 or 55 soon enough for a good price... Now just need the battery...

I have a Minnkota 80# motor and had a Minnkota ~50# before. Bigger motor and the two batteries gives you lots more power and time than the smaller units.

For batteries I just got some generic equivalents at a big box store and keep them topped up with the onboard Minnkota charger. So far so good.

Enjoy the stealth option Evo!

Got a good (new basically) deep cycle from MAD, thanks bud, got a Stanley 1.5 amp charger/maintainer, so I'm good for a bit....

May try for kokes in the morning, probably the only day I can for now...