What do you use?

If you try and use a crank battery for your trolling motor you'll wind up replacing it way too quickly. Also, you'll get very short run time out of it. A cranking battery is designed to give a very short but powerful jolt of power. If you let it discharge down more less than about 70 percent, it will quickly shorten its life.

A deep cycle battery is designed to give a very low power trickle over a long period of time. Discharging down to almost empty and recharging is OK. The downside is that if you try to use a deep cycle to crank with it probably won't give you enough of a boost to turn your motor over (if the motor is very large).

Interstate starting batteries, Dual set up with a battery switch and optima deep cycles on the troller

I use the dual purpose exide from academy.

Deep cycle for both wired in parallel

north said:

Deep cycle for both wired in parallel

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You can only wire it like that if your trolling motor is 12v .parallel is still 12v, but double the amperage.(amp hours) Series is addative, two batteries in series would give you twice the voltage but keep amperage (amp hours)the same. Example:
Two 12v 75 amp hour batteries in parallel= 12v 150 amp hours.
Two 12v 75 amp hour batteries in series= 24v 75 amp hours.

Fish Whisperer said:

You can only wire it like that if your trolling motor is 12v .parallel is still 12v, but double the amperage.(amp hours) Series is addative, two batteries in series would give you twice the voltage but keep amperage (amp hours)the same. Example:
Two 12v 75 amp hour batteries in parallel= 12v 150 amp hours.
Two 12v 75 amp hour batteries in series= 24v 75 amp hours.

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Not to derail the thread.....but I did this a few years back, and it is AWESOME! If you like to be on the trolling motor all day.

While we're on the subject the AGM batteries are interesting. Many of you know I have a trolling motor on my YAK. I bought a standard battery from Academy when I started out. Mounted it behind my milk crate and went fishing. Now I think I will buy an AGM battery so I can place it on it's side and store it under my front hatch and just wire it in with outlets in the appropriate places. If I do that I can drop 20 pounds of ballast, re-distribute the weight and free up a square foot of deck space. Just another option that's out there.

Two deep cycyle in parallel on the trolling motor(12V) for me too and a cranker for the motor. The parallel is nice too because I can charge both at the same time on a single bank charger and save a few dollars. Takes longer but does the job.

Two deep cycles on TM and a cranking battery on the motor. In a deep cycle, I've got the largest I could find.

Still, the fact remains if you have a 24 or higher voltage motor it won't work in parallel with 12v batteries.

DeceiverBob said:

Interstate starting batteries, Dual set up with a battery switch and optima deep cycles on the troller

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Same here though I wish there was a way to lighten the load of having 5 batteries.

I went with Optima Blue Tops because of the size space I had to put 3 batteries in. On my bass boats I used Interstate deep cycles.

Choupique, You're running a 36v set up on your RedFisher? I ran a 24v 82lb on mine and it was usually plenty of motor. On days when it wouldn't buck the wind you were a little crazy for being out there anyways. I moved up to a 36v hen I got the bay boat. 4 batteries was a load for the Hewes.

DeceiverBob said:

Choupique, You're running a 36v set up on your RedFisher? I ran a 24v 82lb on mine and it was usually plenty of motor. On days when it wouldn't buck the wind you were a little crazy for being out there anyways. I moved up to a 36v hen I got the bay boat. 4 batteries was a load for the Hewes.

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Hindsight for me, DB. I'm sure an 82 would've been been fine.

High CCA cranking battery for the motor.

3 Deep cycles for the TM.

All of my batteries came from A&A. I tell Billy what I have, he tells me what I need.

There are a few companies that make very light batteries if weight is a concern. They will also make your wallet light but there are 12 and 16 volt batteries 600-900CA that are less than 8#s.