I need a good battery for my trolling motor. Something cheap that will hold a good charge. Let me know what you guys use or what you have that has juice, stays charged long, and lasts a few years.

I've been running the DieHard Deep Cycle's from Sears for the last 6 years. I had my last one for almost 4 years before noticing a significant drop in charge capacity. I haven't tried out any other brands so I can't compare. Nothing bad to say about the DieHard's here. I've always been curious about the Optima's(good reviews) but just can't justify the $. Good luck!

how much were the diehards? You got a part number?

I just bought a fleetfarm group 27 for mine for $69. So far so good. I'll give you the complete update in a year! I had it out for 6 hours straight one weekend and it didn't show any signs of slowing down. Otherwise 2-4 hours is all that it sees on a typical outing.

that sounds like a great deal too! Whats the warranty?

The standard 1 year free replacement and I'd have to look to see if it is prorated after that. I was using cheap walmart batteries only because I needed to power up a 12 volt outlet for the h20. I couldn't get a year out of those!!!!

I had been buying them in the spring which in my theory is the worst time to buy. Use them all summer put them away for winter and they don't work in the spring and the warranty is up. Buy it in the fall use it for a couple of months, store it over the winter and then have a couple of months to see if it survived or not. What do you think?

Get the Fleet Farm battery as stated above. Then get a battery maintainer from Northern ($49) and leave it on all the time. Battery will last a very long time and always be full charged and ready to go with no hassles.

I've had very good results with (GNB?) Stowaways I purchased at Sam's Club roughly 8 years ago, give or take. I think they were around $60-$70 each at the time and had 24-month warranty.

Dunno if they even make 'em anymore.

I've got a Stowaway Deep Cycle that owes me nothing. Its got to be at least 7 years old. On the other end of the price spectrum my Interstate Gell Cell Deep Cycle is a couple years older and its still going as well.

My Stowaway Deep Cycle is roughly 5 years old and going strong. Just went camping last weekend using it Friday and Saturday driving my 40pd MinnKota and still had 3/4 charge when I came home.

I think you'll be happy with just about anything you choose as long as you take good care of it.

Get the highest reserve capacity/amp-hour battery you can afford, recharge as soon as possible after use, recharge slowly (talking strictly deep cycle here), maintain fluid level above plates, store inside during winter recharging periodically, and treat it with care.

Bob