Ok So I Put on an I pilot.

[jimcr]

Ok So I Put on an I pilot on my trolling motor , it makes a great autopilot / cruise control. Set the kicker just a tad low and turn on the I pilot just enough to bring up the last .1 mph. I can get 4-5 hours out of the battery (12 volt system) and my thought is to put another battery in parallel to boost the trolling time and power. I can not change it to 24 volts.

Is it going to help or will I not notice any improvement?

[ekbelt]

Another battery should close to double your time. Get a good two bank onboard charger, makes things a lot easier and keeps the batteries topped off.

[danthebuilder]

You're never supposed to fully drain your marine battery so you should definitely add a 2nd battery.

[1mainiac]

Yes it will work however a load bank is always determined by the worst battery in the bank. For this reason I always recomend putting in 2 new identical batteries in parallel. the reason is once they have cycled they will equalize to each other since the new battery can't fix the older battery it simply matches it's output and cycle. The numbers you need to look for is AH rating (Amp Hour) and cycle rating. The higher the AH rating the longer run time between charges batteries in parallel will have the AH rating add together if they are equal batteries. Cycle rating is the number of times the battery can be run down and recharged. 10.6vdc is considered a dead battery at resting voltage. So if you run your battery for 5 hours and resting voltage is down to 10.6 it is dead and needs to be recharged that is 1 cycle if the battery is rated for 100 cycles and you avg 10 trips a year the battery should last 10 years with proper maintaince.