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If you are drawing down your voltage that much when you are out of the water it means you are drawing much more current than you should be. Brushes in the motor would be my first bet. A dirty armature or a wet armature could also be the problem. If it got hot, you may have shorted windings in the armature. It doesn't sound like a batter problem to me.
I bought 2 Maxx batteries from Wal Mart last year and had to have both of them replaced already. Hard to say if it's the motor or the wiring, I worked for Tracker Boats years ago and have a trolling motor harness laying around some where that your welcome to if that is the problem. It does not have the breaker box on it anymore but I think there is enough wire for you boat.. Good Luck!
Brian it was good to talk with ya the other day. Hope ya got your livewell as full as you wished for! I think the wiring is fine, I am going to get new batteries tomorrow, I need a spare for my sprayer and several electric fences anyway! If that don't fix it I will work my way through the components. I will let ya know if I get to the wiring! Thanks Mark
Sounds like the TM or wiring to me. Had various problems over the years, sometimes TM, sometimes battery and once a blown fuse from charger to battery. Have also heard from a couple people that deep cycle batteries need drawn down to dead-then charged back up or they get a zone. I got an old car headlight with alligator clips. Two times each year I hook the headlight to the batteries and lay it on garage floor to disharge the batteries to dead. Takes days. Then charge em back up. Can usually get 3 somtimes 4 years out of em. Anybody else heard of this or am I a fool again?
I left right after you all did Friday, I had my limit but only a few over 11 inches. I had a trolling motor problem myself Friday, I was being stupid going from the back of the creek to the mouth at full speed and hit a stump, the trolling motor shaft got bent clear under the boat and a rod fell in the lake which I was lucky and bragged the end of the handle on the way down. The Minn Kota Maxxum 80 says the shaft is unbreakable and I think I put it to it's limit, the only thing that happened was I broke a blade of the prop.
I went to Wal Mart and bought a prop for 25 bucks which I thought was kind of high, got home and the prop shaft was to small so I got online and found the prop that fit my motor and it cost 40 bucks!!!!!!!!banghead. It's the same size, shape and brand that I bought from Wal Mart but it has a half inch hole!!!!!!!! what a rip off.:mad: OK I'm done with my rant, it was my stupidity the started it all. :crazy:
Brian sorry about your little problems there! Like they say if ya ain't using it won't break. I like using it!
It's not totally unbreakable but it's so much better than a steel shaft that it isn't funny.
I wouldn't do that.
Had that exact problem just the other day...well sounds the same. Noticed the trolling motor was lagging a bit just didn't think too much about it until it wouldn't even pull the boat in high gear after an hour or so. Drifted around for a few minutes and it would haul butt for about 5 seconds then dead again. I knew I had help because my uncle was in his boat fishing close by so I went ahead and switched my starting battery over to my trolling motor and it worked fine the rest of the day and still had enough juice to start the big motor. Someone else mentioned the load.. There is a difference between your volts at rest and your volts while under load. I don't understand it so am not going to try to act like I do, but I know there is a difference.... my guess is your battery or batteries are done for.....I don't know if there is any one battery brand better than the next as I've had them both go bad and both last.
Let me chase a rabbit,Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigby
If you are trying to teach the wife to run the trolling motor and she ask "Is that pulled back enough?" Don't just answer her with a "its ok" like you do on everything else. At 35 MPH plus you can break the shaft on a terrova and it was a very wet run. Minn Kota says a limited lifetime warranty on the composite shaft and they replaced it free. I now also have a bungee cord that I use to tie down the unit while running down the lake.