Trolling Motor Efficiency

[Ghost]

Using a group 24 deep cycle battery, will a bigger trolling motor, like a 36/46/50 lb be more efficient on battery usage than a 30 lb trolling motor?

What I'm trying to say is will a bigger trolling motor not drain a battery as fast as a smaller trolling motor, if run on speed 3? Or will a smaller trolling motor, 30 lb be more efficient on battery power?

[Ronira]

I'm thinking a smaller motor will use less on a light boat but I don't know that to be a fact.

[steve092]

Is this for a pontoon boat?

[Fastfish]

More power is more battery used very simple and not many ways to get around it.

[ElementX]

I've been thinking about this; coincidence I came across this thread.

1 lb of thrust is almost equivalent to 1 amp. Speed 4 uses roughly half the amps as speed 5. This leads me to believe that depending on your desired speed, its very possible to save power using a bigger trolling motor.

My Endura 30 pushes my pontoon boat great on calm water. Once the wind picks up and theres enough waves to push my boat around, it greatly reduces the efficiency of my trolling motor. I find that If I go slower and steady on 4 instead of 5, I make about the same amount of progress without having to constantly correct steering. This saves a lot of battery. Don't use speed 5 and you instantly double your runtime at the cost of speed. Thats fine with me because I don't move around often. Getting to my spot may take longer, but it gives me time to get all my other junk set up.

So I've been thinking about upgrading to something like a 50lb thrust motor. On 4, it would drain @ 25A which will be less than my Endura 30 drains on 5 @ 30A. Main purpose really would be to get the bigger prop which in theory should be like adding more torque as opposed to hp. Except in this case, if I want to get lead hand(?), I can still crank it up because I have more "hp" when I put it into 5. I'm not concerned about increasing all the other speeds across the band as I can already kick faster than speed 1, so it was useless to begin with for me.

How's that sound?

[ElementX]

http://tufox.com/hobie/TrollingPerformance.html