I am setting up a small canoe (Old Town - Pack 12 ft long, 33 lbs) for fishing on a small 10 acre lake behind my house; and want to use an electric trolling motor to move about. Can I use a small motorcycle starting battery instead of the much heavier full sized deep cycle marine battery? I know that the MC starting battery will quicky discharge, but I intend to use it to power the smallest electric motor I can find, just to move from spot-to-spot. I have a small charger, so I can recharge after each use - probably once a week.
regards,
Mark

I wonder how a small lawn tractor battery would do. None of these starting batteries like to be deep discharged so the life isn't going to be very good in this application.

I've used a small ATV/motorcycle battery for my daughters Barbie ATV. It works very well for this application, much better then the expensive battery that Fisher/Price sells.

A 10 acre lake is a good size lake and I would imagine that a small ATV/motorcycle battery would work but I would bring a back-up. I prefer to use a car jump start type of battery which I use to power my homemade battery back sump pump. This has save me recently when my regular sump pump bit the dust.

In fact you could use the car jump start type of battery instead of a motorcycle battery. It would be safer since it is a sealed battery.

Ideally you would benifit from a regular deep cycle battery because they are designed to charge/discharge many times.

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Ray
1998 Mercedes E320, 200K Miles
2001 Acura 3.2TL, 178K Miles
1992 Chevy Astro, 205K Miles

I'd give you an hour to 2 hours of use and thats being optimistic, keep in mind that the low weight low thrust models are also the bottom of the line and made cheaply so they are less efficient. On many models it takes more energy to produce 22 lbs of thrust than a middle of the line needs to produce 36 lbs. I live on a electric motor only lake and found that the nautilus gel cell batterys are a comparative weight but produce much more power, they will be much more forgiving in the water/wet conditions as well. Check ePray for trolling motors many fisherman replace trolling motors like underwear. You can also get a nifty little solar charger the can get you through the summer with one or two recharges needed.

I am cheap so I use my old car batteries to power my Minn Kota 35lb motor. Currantly I am using a OE MB battery that was in my parts car, that is one heck of a battery. I am able to run the motor all day without any problems.

If you were to buy a battery Sears has some great deals on deep cycles. I'd just rather keep my $90 in my pocket.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

The best deals are at........

WALMART

allstate has a store in town and they beat walmart hands down on their price..

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SAM'S club sells the same stuff cheaper