Trolling motor battery questions

[kd...]

Wet cell lead acid batteries do not have the "memory" effect. This was a characteristic of NiCad batteries years ago. You do not need to fully discharge your batteries before you charge them. The one thing you do want to do is charge them as soon as you can after you use them. Do not let them sit in a discharged state for days or you will kill them quickly. Your motor can draw almost 45 amps at high speed so its not going to run all day long at that rate. You stated your batteries were good for 7.1 hours at 15 amps so 5 hours at varying speeds is about right. On that Saturday when you only got 30 minutes, it sounds like your batteries were not fully charged. Your batteries are two years old now. If they sat around in a discharged state, that could be your problem as that can cause them to develop internal resistance. If you are sure you are getting them fully charged and they tested that way under load, then you should get around 5 hours use like you did before.
[signature]