I have a 17' lowe stinger with a 80lb thrust 24v trolling motor. The boat has 3 new batteries and a cabelas 3 bank charger, my question is how long should I expect to get out of my motor I unplugged the boat this morning and went out and used just the trolling motor for about 2-3 hrs on about 40% power and they were toast, is this about normal or is there an issue? Any advice would be appreciated, i just bought the boat and I don't know what to expect

I have a 101 IPilot 36v, in almost 4 yrs I have only ran it down 1 time when it stayed on 5-7 almost all day in the wind, normally 2 days + use
Batteries were new in 2009, Walmart group 29's

What size are the trolling motor batteries?...I can run my 24 volt Terrova all day on the two I have ....845 cranking amps 125 amp hours group 29 Walmart Max batteries...so I would say you are not getting the performance you should...but it could be due to a smaller size battery..the terrova is on a 20 ft Bass Cat Puma...so I would think yours is a lighter boat..also check the water level in your batteries to make sure the plates are fully flooded..

How old is the trolling motor and is anything else connected to the trolling motor batteries? I have a 15' fiberglass and my old TM would run the battery down in a 7-8 hour day not running too heavily on the trolling motor. I put on a terrova and I have never run the battery down, even running on max power for most of the day and always using spotlock. I use the Walmart 29 group also.

It could be a number of factors such as the efficiency of the TM, did the batteries actually have a full charge, are you running on high setting and is the charger fully charging. I'd start by getting a reading from the battery after a full nights charge. Your charger may not be fully charging them. If you have anything else wired on those batteries, move them to the starting battery.

You should have no problem with a full days use under normal conditions.

I'm thinking you may have an issue. I have a 24V Riptide I Pilot and I'm not sure how long it can actually go. I have spot locked for hours on a windy day, used it to move around and locate fish, and worked some banks all the same day, and I have not seen the meter go below 50%. Mine has Interstate Group 29's.

The newer TM are digital. They don't use any where near the amount of power the older TM use. I could only get about 4 or 5 hrs out of a full charge when I had a 24 volt hand control MG running at 50 percent or higher. After I got the I-pilot, I can run all day with power to spare.
With that said, I also had an issue with one battery recently where I would loose power after 3 or 4 hrs. Found out I had a dead cell in one battery.
Take your batteries to an auto parts store. Ask them to do a load test on each one. That will tell if they are ok.

just to clarify...the motor isn't digital, the motor is brushless. That is what makes them much more efficient. The motor can be made smaller for a given amount of torque needed, requiring less amps. The power supply that regulates the motor is a digital switching supply. It s also more efficient. I'd guess that the old motors are around 50% efficient where the newer motors are closer to 80-85%.