koondog Posted September 14, 2020 Report Share Posted September 14, 2020 Fished Saturday in pretty heavy wind/current. Minn Kota spot lock worked great for the first ~ 1.5hrs. Then it turned off. Would re-anchor the unit, it would work for a few minutes then turn off again... Never could get it to lock in again without turning off. This motor was installed in July 2016 and has the original interstate batteries. I'm thinking I might have a battery voltage issue that is messing with the GPS? Was curious if anyone else has had similar issues ? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redzone1 Posted September 14, 2020 Report Share Posted September 14, 2020 I had a similar issue in the past few months. I had a bad cell in one of my batteries Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smilemaker Posted September 14, 2020 Report Share Posted September 14, 2020 redzone is "spot on" if you have a bad cell then your amp hrs will be minimal and the motor will act up. even if you have on the fly charging it will not hold. spot lock seems to be very sensitive to voltage drop when it comes to holding. to check fully charge the batteries disconnect them let them sit a couple of hrs to equalize and use a load tester to find the bad battery. if near harbor freight 20 bucks will get you a decent easy to use tester the dilemma you will have is the age difference of a new battery and the other two Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bamaskeet Posted September 15, 2020 Report Share Posted September 15, 2020 Spot lock is very voltage sensitive. Bad batteries or a plug connection problem will give you spot lock problems. And like Smilemaker suggested, buy a cheap battery tester from Harbor Freight but remember you have to charge the batteries before testing them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koondog Posted September 16, 2020 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2020 Thanks for the help guys. I'm planning to replace both batteries to see if that fixes my issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quest4reds Posted September 16, 2020 Report Share Posted September 16, 2020 6 hours ago, koondog said: Thanks for the help guys. I'm planning to replace both batteries to see if that fixes my issue. Please let us know if that's the fix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnd Posted September 17, 2020 Report Share Posted September 17, 2020 as stated, very volt sensitive. Check your fuse. Should be 60 amp. Corrosion on the fuse is enough to create this problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Jazzy Posted October 17, 2020 Report Share Posted October 17, 2020 On 9/14/2020 at 7:21 PM, smilemaker said: redzone is "spot on" if you have a bad cell then your amp hrs will be minimal and the motor will act up. even if you have on the fly charging it will not hold. spot lock seems to be very sensitive to voltage drop when it comes to holding. to check fully charge the batteries disconnect them let them sit a couple of hrs to equalize and use a load tester to find the bad battery. if near harbor freight 20 bucks will get you a decent easy to use tester the dilemma you will have is the age difference of a new battery and the other two Just purchased one of these to test mine. I think one of mine is showing too low. What exactly are you reading when under load. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smilemaker Posted October 17, 2020 Report Share Posted October 17, 2020 you need to know the CCA of your battery. charge the battery fully and allow to rest a couple of hrs put the load tester on and and look at the gauge while you holding the button for about 10 sec. read the gauge at the needle and compare for your CCA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Jazzy Posted October 17, 2020 Report Share Posted October 17, 2020 45 minutes ago, smilemaker said: you need to know the CCA of your battery. charge the battery fully and allow to rest a couple of hrs put the load tester on and and look at the gauge while you holding the button for about 10 sec. read the gauge at the needle and compare for your CCA They are optima blue tops with 750cca. One shows around 1000 the other 800(the pics show where the needle was). I’ve had trouble with the blue tops before. The boat came with them when I bought it. One went out so I replaced with another so they would be the same. About a year later I had to replace the other so the dates are 3/17 and 2/18. Always charged up after use. I’m having trouble getting a decent run time before my trolley starts acting up. I have a ulterra and after a couple hours of use it will cut off. I have to wait a few minutes till it powers back up but it does it again. I recently rewired the entire system so all connections should be good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jh141 Posted October 17, 2020 Report Share Posted October 17, 2020 I current Number one house battery is an Optima Blue Top. I am not a fan. My number two house and 36 volt trolling motor bank are Deka 24 AGMs. The Deka batteries have been great. If you hold the load for 10 seconds and the needle never goes below 800 I would say your batteries are good. Last battery I load tested that was bad pushed back to the red very quickly. My good batteries hold steady around 800 for the full ten seconds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smilemaker Posted October 17, 2020 Report Share Posted October 17, 2020 it appears that the batteries are right on. if there is a bad cell it will go straight to red bad area. if the battery is getting weak it will drop below its rated level Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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