# Battery life



## Carpman (May 18, 2005)

I am having some battery life issues right now. 

Specs are: Ranger 619, Ulterra 80 24v, 2 x Duracell 31DTMAGM (brand new this year)

Now I just upgraded to the ulterra this year from a terrova, and love that you don't have to touch it, but I think it is at the root of my problem. I used to go all day and then some with the terrova with the same spec batteries. I fish a lot of tournaments and have been running low on battery power at the end of the day, not good. My theory is that the ulterra uses extra battery power that I am not used to such as the auto stow and deploy and the power trim feature. 

What are your guy's thoughts on this, does anyone else run a similar setup?

Other things also come to mind like not charging that batteries correctly, bad batteries, bad ulterra. But that may just be me being pessimistic.


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## Shortdrift (Apr 5, 2004)

I would think that deploying and retracting takes a significant amount of power. Bass fishing usually means making a number of moves when looking for the best bite. Try keeping track of the number of deploy/retract and compare with the run time. MK should be able to provide you with a good qualified answer.


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## Carpman (May 18, 2005)

Thanks Shortdrift. I did some math and at 1/2 power I should be getting 6 hours run time with my batteries and that is continuous. Now, that does not include electronic deploying, turning, and trim. I think I found the culprit. The only way I am going to gt better battery life is move up to a 36v system which I am not setup for, nor want to deal with.


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## K gonefishin (May 4, 2004)

Do you run ur kicker while trolling ?


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

I have an Ulterra on my boat. I run 8 hrs in crappie tourneys with the motor running almost continuous and have not run out of battery life yet. I am running a 24V system with Group 31 Batteries Plus gel batteries. These batteries are expensive but have a 4 year non prorated replacement guarantee. I'm on my 4th year now and they are still strong.

I would encourage you to get extra batteries for the remote and keep them in your boat. The battery life in the remote is extremely short as compared to my previous Terrova.


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## Carpman (May 18, 2005)

K gonefishin said:


> Do you run ur kicker while trolling ?


Yes, I have an 8 hp yami. Still run out of battery power. Also run out of battery power during bass tournaments. 

Lundy, I am running group 31 AGM batteries.....105 AH 200 Reserve.

Still a little puzzled on this.


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## eyedreamn (Jun 12, 2011)

Try one external charge from and outside source. Pull the batteries if you have to. Make sure they are 100%. This will rule out a charging issue internally.

You can also have them bench tested.

Me 36 volt. Just sayn..


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## Carpman (May 18, 2005)

Thank you Eyedreamn. After they were charged by the on board charger I did hook up a smart charger to them and it said they were both full at 13 some odd volts. So I think that ulterra is just eating my batteries. I may have too much weight in the boat for an 80 lb setup.


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## Bassbme (Mar 11, 2012)

Connecting two 12 volt batteries in series, as you do with a 24V system only doubles the voltage, it doesn't double the reserve capacity.

Depending on what your trolling motor is drawing at 1/2 power, lets assume it's 25 amps, a 200 minute reserve capacity is going to get you about 3 hours and 20 minutes of run time.

And as Shortdrift said, deploying and retracting the motor probably draws quite a bit of amperage. Those motors aren't light. I'm sure the mechanisms involved draw quite a few amps.

I'm curious if you were running the Terrova at those kind of speed settings when you say you used to be able to go all day on the same spec batteries?

If so, and one of the batteries aren't bad when you place a load on it, then I'd think it has to be the added draw from the convenience features on the Ulterra.


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## eyedreamn (Jun 12, 2011)

Bassbme said:


> Connecting two 12 volt batteries in series, as you do with a 24V system only doubles the voltage, it doesn't double the reserve capacity.
> 
> Depending on what your trolling motor is drawing at 1/2 power, lets assume it's 25 amps, a 200 minute reserve capacity is going to get you about 3 hours and 20 minutes of run time.
> 
> ...


 I x E = P

When increasing the voltage against any specific load it will draw less.

Going from 12 volts to 24 volt decreases the draw. The load calculations on the battery are for 12 volts not 24 volt.

Are you calculations against the load with 12 or 24 volts??


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## walleyechaser (Apr 13, 2004)

You should also check the gauge size of the wire from the battery to the motor. If you increased the current draw and the wire gauge is to small for the load the current can be dropped accoss the wiring also. You may be able to feel a temperature rise in the wire if the gauge is too small. You need to measure max current draw then size the gauge of the wire accordinly. The greater the distance from the battery the larger gauge wire is also needed.


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## Carpman (May 18, 2005)

I re-ran some calculations and it looks like I keep getting my original 6 hours continuous. I do know the simple equations to determine theoretical run time and wire gauge. I think it literally has to do with me having more weight in the boat this year and the auto everything that the ulterra offers. So unless I upgrade to 36v, or add 2 more batteries to my 24v system I will just have to take it easy on the motor I guess.


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## Bassbme (Mar 11, 2012)

eyedreamn said:


> I x E = P
> 
> When increasing the voltage against any specific load it will draw less.
> 
> ...


I'm going by what the trolling motor draws, and the fact that in a 24V system, the batteries are wired in series, and the amp draw on each battery is equal. Were the batteries wired in parallel, the amp draw would be split between the two batteries. 

If a 24V trolling motor is drawing 25 amps, it's drawing those amps at 24 volts.


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## Carpman (May 18, 2005)

Copy that, I'm on the same page. Don't know what I was doing earlier. 

3.33 hours @ half speed. 

Looks like a minnkota quick release bracket and a cable steer motor is in my future for the bass tournaments.


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## capt j-rod (Feb 14, 2008)

That seems wild... The info is correct, but my terrova on 6-8 goes 5-6 hrs... Are the specs that different for a ulterra? 36v is more weight, new charger, more batteries and a bath on the purchase of a 24v. Have you called the factory? Maybe it's a bad unit? I really want a longer shaft terrova to keep it in the water on rough days, but I don't want to re-rig. Do you have an electrical meter with an amprobe to get real time amp draw? I guess it's hard to believe that newer, bigger, badder, technology would have this big of a drain on the banks. The wire size and distance is pretty critical. Let us know what you find, it's annoying when the story goes cold!


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## catfish1605 (Jan 18, 2009)

Are you able to stow and deploy the ulterra manually. If so, take it out and just use it manually and see if your batteries last any longer.


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## Bassbme (Mar 11, 2012)

Carpman ... there is a formula to calculate the amp draw of your trolling motor at max throttle so to speak. It may not get you to the exact amps your motor draws, but it will get you pretty close. The formula is as follows.

Trolling motor thrust, divided by operating voltage, multiplied by 12.

For an 80# thrust trolling motor ... 80 divided by 24 = 3.33 Multiplied by 12 = 39.99. From what I could find out about your trolling motor, (I know someone that has one) it will draw the 40 amps at initial start up, but once the boat is moving, amp draw drops to 37.6

So let's just call it 38 amps at max speed. Since there are so many variables involved we can only extrapolate the numbers to obtain a guesstimate of what the amp draw would be at 50% throttle. Let's call it 19 amps. My calculations would give you a run time of 4.39 hours at a continuous 19 amp draw.

The specs I found for the batteries you listed show a reserve capacity of 210 minutes, so your run time would be slightly longer.


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## Carpman (May 18, 2005)

Thank you Bassbme. 

Capt J-rod, There is more that goes into the equation too like weight and drag with motor down. I did used to get the run time that you have on my terrova. With the ulterra it eats those group 31's for breakfast.


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## MassillonBuckeye (May 3, 2010)

I have to imagine, like others before me that the stow/deploy/turns/trim uses considerable juice. I've heard about the manual stow option on those.... I'm guessing you'd rather add an extra battery.  Convenience comes at a cost.


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## Carpman (May 18, 2005)

The manual stow and deploy is for emergencies only on the ulterra........you have to take to an official service center after you manually stow it to get it put back together. You should see the quick reference for the manual stow, I had easier equations in engineering school!


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