Thread: Trolling motor question. 24v or 36V

Narrowing down to trolling motor options for the new boat. Going with a MinKota Ultrex. My boat is a 1860 Alweld Center Console with a 115 Yamaha. Would you go 36volt or 24volt. I want to save weight as much as possible has me leaning towards 24 volt but I don't want to buy the 24 volt and regret not buying the 36. No real money difference in price.

My 24 volt trolling motor will last me all day in my 17' deep V fiberglass boat.

I’m not sure how much your boat weights, but my old 24V Terrova pulled my 18’ Skeeter SF-175 at least 2.5 mph max easily, although my normally 0.2-0.4 mph trolling only used 25% of the group 24 AGM batteries on a 7 hour fishing day. Even 4 hours of pulling crankbaits at 1.5 mph doesn’t pull my battery down to but somewhere between 50-75% depending on conditions. If I had Lithiums, I’d easily go ahead and run the 2nd day in a row without charging overnight.

That same trolling motor now on my dad’s 17’ Skeeter SS-90 will pull his boat up to 3.0 mph.

My Ghost will run on 24 or 36V. I'm running it on 24 and it'll pull my Triton 1860 with a 90hp Yamaha 4.0mph.

If you went with Lithium batteries you could have 36v with the battery weight lower than 2 lead acid batteries.

Just put a 24 volt 80# Terrova on a 20' G3 fish and cruise pontoon. At full power it move move it along at 3mph. This is with gear, 90hp motor. Around 20 gallons of fuel. 2 100quart ice chests full of ice, 3 people and jugs fishing gear. I was pretty impressed. I am running 2 100ah lithium batteries

Nobody has ever said...my troller is too big.

Originally Posted by fiveeyes

Nobody has ever said...my troller is too big.

My buddy actually found out that you can have too big of a motor. He put a 36v terrova on a 1756. With lithium batteries he cannot long line troll for crappies anymore, 0.5 on the remote moves his boat 0.3mph and 1.0 is 1mph.. he lost the sweet spot!

Sent from my SM-A516U using Crappie.com mobile app

Whichever TM you choose, buy brushless, your batteries will thank you later.

The new Ultrex TM's can be wired for for 24v 90# or 36v 115# if you choose the upgrade. I would think the 24v 80# be fine for that boat. But you may decide to get a bigger boat in the future. I been running a 24v 80# Ultrex on a 18 foot fiberglass boat since 2018 no issues, the right batteries are key. I recently bought a 24 foot pontoon boat and went with a 112# 36v Ultrex. I can hop in either boat and pull cranks at 1.8 mph all day with no issues.