Lithium batteries are fine and do great as long as you know when and where to use them.But if you dont do your research and match them with a good charger you will have trouble.People have been using ionics for yrs in marine applications without any trouble.
Trolling motor issues...Kipowa 3 blade trolling motor prop- UPDATE
- Thread starter megalomaniac
- Start date
I know mercury went from very few compatible to most of them. I came across a list on Bassboatcentral a few weeks ago
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
Had today off...
I'm getting very frustrated with my lack of trolling motor power on the boat esp after this last trip when the wind kicked up, so I've done a TON of YouTube research and decided to completely pull the foot apart and test everything and go from there...
Pulled the armature and tested it and the commutator with a voltmeter... perfect conduction. Bearing on the arm is good. Pulled and checked brushes.. all good. Reassembled the foot and tested the motor... seemed to spin with a few more RPMs. Held the prop with my hand and gradually increased the speed... ZERO increase on torque as I increased the speed, the the motor shut itself off at high speed with me holding the prop.
Tested a friend's 30lb motor under load the same way. 5 speed variable, was crazy how much torque it generated at top speed when I held the prop... like 5x more than mine would generate under load!
Obviously something is limiting current delivered to the foot under load...checked the battery at its terminals... 13.4v at rest, drops to 12.9v under a load. Checked the voltage at the trolling motor itself... same 13.4v at rest, 12.9v under load (meaning battery was good and boat wiring from battery (including breaker) to TM is good).
Figuring something MUST be wrong with the control board limiting current delivered to the motor under load is the problem, called minn kota technical service again and explained everything. They agreed there is an issue with the control board limiting current to the foot... no problem, new one is $250.... problem is, they say if the steering motor has a problem and draws more than 2 amps when in use, it can fry the new control board (and could have been the reason current control board is not functioning properly). Crap, I figured why not just get one of those steering motor assemblies for another $200 while I'm at it, then when I tear the motor apart to install the new control unit board, I'll test the steering motor and either replace if necessary or just return the part.
After all this at least I have reassurance a 55lb motor is MORE than enough for my flyweight microskiff.
I'm wondering if this is the reason my spotlock isn't working well... while doing all these upgrades, I asked the tech reps if I could go ahead and replace the head unit from my old RF ipilot to the new Bluetooth head... they said 'they cannot advise me on that'. I tried to pin them down on that answer, but the feeling I got was they didn't want me upgrading my 'legacy' (as they called my model) to one of the updated models... im assuming hoping I would just buy a new $1700 TM.
Regardless, I found Minn Kota technical support to be extremely helpful and would be happy to buy their products again in the future!!!
I'll let you guys know how it goes after the new control board comes in, but this gives me hope I won't have to upgrade to an 80v system (with all the extra weight and have to cut the shaft down to fit better on my boat)
I'm getting very frustrated with my lack of trolling motor power on the boat esp after this last trip when the wind kicked up, so I've done a TON of YouTube research and decided to completely pull the foot apart and test everything and go from there...
Pulled the armature and tested it and the commutator with a voltmeter... perfect conduction. Bearing on the arm is good. Pulled and checked brushes.. all good. Reassembled the foot and tested the motor... seemed to spin with a few more RPMs. Held the prop with my hand and gradually increased the speed... ZERO increase on torque as I increased the speed, the the motor shut itself off at high speed with me holding the prop.
Tested a friend's 30lb motor under load the same way. 5 speed variable, was crazy how much torque it generated at top speed when I held the prop... like 5x more than mine would generate under load!
Obviously something is limiting current delivered to the foot under load...checked the battery at its terminals... 13.4v at rest, drops to 12.9v under a load. Checked the voltage at the trolling motor itself... same 13.4v at rest, 12.9v under load (meaning battery was good and boat wiring from battery (including breaker) to TM is good).
Figuring something MUST be wrong with the control board limiting current delivered to the motor under load is the problem, called minn kota technical service again and explained everything. They agreed there is an issue with the control board limiting current to the foot... no problem, new one is $250.... problem is, they say if the steering motor has a problem and draws more than 2 amps when in use, it can fry the new control board (and could have been the reason current control board is not functioning properly). Crap, I figured why not just get one of those steering motor assemblies for another $200 while I'm at it, then when I tear the motor apart to install the new control unit board, I'll test the steering motor and either replace if necessary or just return the part.
After all this at least I have reassurance a 55lb motor is MORE than enough for my flyweight microskiff.
I'm wondering if this is the reason my spotlock isn't working well... while doing all these upgrades, I asked the tech reps if I could go ahead and replace the head unit from my old RF ipilot to the new Bluetooth head... they said 'they cannot advise me on that'. I tried to pin them down on that answer, but the feeling I got was they didn't want me upgrading my 'legacy' (as they called my model) to one of the updated models... im assuming hoping I would just buy a new $1700 TM.
Regardless, I found Minn Kota technical support to be extremely helpful and would be happy to buy their products again in the future!!!
I'll let you guys know how it goes after the new control board comes in, but this gives me hope I won't have to upgrade to an 80v system (with all the extra weight and have to cut the shaft down to fit better on my boat)
BigCityBubba
Well-Known Member
Back 35 to 40 years ago, the standard trolling motor for a small bass boat was 28lb thrust. The standard trolling motor for a large bass boat was a 12/24 55 lb thrust. I have put a 12v 55lb thrust trolling motor on an old boat that used to have a 28 lb thrust trolling motor and it almost seemed like the 28lb was just as powerful as the 55lb. You would almost think the old trolling motors were better but they probably just changed how the calculated the thrust of the trolling motor so they could bump up the advertised thrust and charge more money.
