Minn Kota 65lb Thrust issue

[Fisherman88]

Hello all!

Looking for a little advice or verification. I just bought a used Minn Kota 65lb thrust AP. Got it wired up with the jumper and all that good stuff. I took it out today for the first time and it lost power very quickly. I had a 12v on before and did not have that issue at all. It even seemed to go pretty slow even at full power??

So when I got home I messed with it a little bit. I plugged it in and ran it and turned it up to full power, seemed okay. Then I plugged in the on board chargers (Even though I know you are not suppose to) just to test it out and you could tell there was significantly more power to the TM. To me this seems like I have bad batteries. I know that they are at least 4 years old. But it seems odd that the even right away it seemed like I was not going as fast as I did with a 12v 40lb thrust TM. I have read other posts and looked around the Internet and I have cleaned the foot control because I know those go bad and I  also tried to clean the connections the best I could.

The power connection is a three pronged connector that I used with my 12v battery. I have seen the same connector at the store and it says 12v/24v but could that be the problem?

Any suggestions would be great!

Thanks!

[Big dreams]

I had the same issue with my old Motor Guide.  I changed out the batteries and it was like a new motor.  Sounds like the same issue I had...

[bigjc]

I would start from the source and work your way to the Trolling Motor (TM) testing voltage all the way.
Start by testing the voltage of each individual  battery (completely disconnecting them before you check voltage).  You should get over 12v., once they are fully charged.  I usually get around 12.4 to 12.8 on well maintained and fully charged batteries.
Next hook connections back up to batteries, then check the voltage at the plug.  Checking across the two hot leads should give you 24v.

You should also regularly check the fluid level in your batteries.  If they get low, they can be permanently damaged.

Good luck!

[Fisherman88]

Hey guys!!

Thanks for the advice. I looked at my batteries and one was 2002!!! I am not sure what the other one was and they were both different brands, so who knows how old that one is!! I just got new batteries in the boat so hopefully that fixes the issue. I then hooked everything up and tested it and now one of the lights on my bank charger flicks red and green. Ive never had that happen to be before so am not sure the that means? Off to research that now!

I tried a few things and even disconnected the charger from one of the batteries, to see which one was battery one and which was battery two, then the lights for both batteries flickered??

Any further advice would be much appreciated!! Thanks a lot guys!