Battery/Trolling Motor/Charger Question

I have a 24v 70lb MinnKota, I have 3 Interstate batteries, about 2yrs old, I have a 3 bank 18 amp total, 6 Per battery on board charger, the batteries all have liquid in them, if I fish 3 hours I am lucky, after that I have to put the motor on the highest setting to move the boat fast enough to pull a crankbait under, so I have disconnected all the trolling motor batteries, and hooked my 15 amp portable charger to the first one, it says the battery is 81% charged. I havent put it on battery 2 yet, but I was surprised at the 81%, after leaving Grenada this morning because I thought it was about dead. Any ideas, thoughts or suggestions appreciated.

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Originally Posted by crappierebel

I have a 24v 70lb MinnKota, I have 3 Interstate batteries, about 2yrs old, I have a 3 bank 18 amp total, 6 Per battery on board charger, the batteries all have liquid in them, if I fish 3 hours I am lucky, after that I have to put the motor on the highest setting to move the boat fast enough to pull a crankbait under, so I have disconnected all the trolling motor batteries, and hooked my 15 amp portable charger to the first one, it says the battery is 81% charged. I havent put it on battery 2 yet, but I was surprised at the 81%, after leaving Grenada this morning because I thought it was about dead. Any ideas, thoughts or suggestions appreciated.

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They have been pulling the lake pretty hard as long as you are trolling towards the dam it’s easy but turn your boat towards the east and it’s gonna pull hard. Had same thing last week there. Good luck.


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Have the two batteries in your 24volt configuration load tested, mise-well check all three. I bet you have a bad battery. And no need to disconnect the batteries (jumper) to charge them individually when connected in a series. A little more info would help as well, like the size of the boat, group size of the batteries and if you have had problems in the past before the interstates pulling cranks.

Could be a bad bank on the charger as well, charge them up full and use a multi-meter to check voltage on them after they have cooled for an hour or two.

I had bad batteries that checked good on load test. They would charge to 100%, but get on the lake & terrova would shut down after a few minutes. Batteries were Exide from Academy. They would have been 3yrs old in August. I have never got much over 2 yrs out of any battery! My 2 cents.