07-07-2004, 04:24 PM
Hey Jed, I have a 7ft pontoon, and a 30 lb thrust Minnkota. I tried it out for the first time last weekend at strawberry, with 2 toons tied together. My wife and I covered a good chunk of water without the battery ever failing, but I swapped them after the first day, and recharged for 1/2 hour the second day, using the motorhome's alternator.
I went out by myself last night, and according to the gps, top speed for me is 3 mph. I'm using a 115 amp hour deep cycle battery that I got at walmart for $55.
I haven't checked the actual current draw of my motor, but I've read somewhere that it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 amps on "5". I don't usually leave it at that speed, but if I were to, then theoretically, I could go for almost 4 hours at full speed before my battery gave up the ghost. However, I think I also read that you shouldn't fully discharge the battery.
Google's a pretty decent source of pertinent information about this.
[signature]
I went out by myself last night, and according to the gps, top speed for me is 3 mph. I'm using a 115 amp hour deep cycle battery that I got at walmart for $55.
I haven't checked the actual current draw of my motor, but I've read somewhere that it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 amps on "5". I don't usually leave it at that speed, but if I were to, then theoretically, I could go for almost 4 hours at full speed before my battery gave up the ghost. However, I think I also read that you shouldn't fully discharge the battery.
Google's a pretty decent source of pertinent information about this.
[signature]