Looks like I am going to have to replace the upper motor on one of my TH fish feeders. Was getting late when I made it to that pond this evening and there wasn't enough light for me to really see how it is attached. How do I remove it?

A little daylight helps a bunch.

Removing the plexiglass funnel cover will give you access to the upper motor.

The spinner plate then can be removed by loosening the shaft's setscrew.

Once the spinner plate is out of the way, the two small screws holding the upper motor can be accessed through the hopper.

Now that I have it torn down, I'm also going to replace the lower motor.
Unfortunately, the set screw on the bottom motor is being ugly. Time to break out the penetrating oil.

I am having problems on 1 of my 3 TH feeders. I hope the problem is solved by replacing the battery. Problem I have is with the timer, and when I checked on it yesterday it posted 12 pm as the time of day but it was 8:30 am. I have had a problem with the timer awhile back due to the sunlight being blocked from the solar panel in the early morning hrs. Caused by growing plants. I cleared the problem so for now I am hoping its just an older battery. This TH feeder I bought used and I have had it for a little over 3 yrs so I am not sure exactly how old it is, so it is possible it's the timer panel that needs to be replaced.

Tracy, any idea how old that battery is? I read 18 months is average for a battery. Our local lumber company sells a "generic" batterythat is an exact fit for only $17. That's a cheap fix or test whichever way you want to look at it. Also,If you have electricity acess you can hook a battery charger to it to determine if that's the problem. Or remove the battery and take it to your garage and try to charge it. Note: When mine acted up I replaced the battery and problem solved and....it was exactly 18 months!! Let us know what you find out. Always need knowledge about these feeders. There may be a TH feeder trouble shooting guide on the WWW somewhere??

Tracy, I have had no problems with my control heads....except for the one that took an extended bath during flooding.

My first thought is that you just may need a new battery.

When you press the "Menu" button, what comes up on the screen? If you often see "charging", that is a good indication that the battery is not holding a charge.

Also, check all the connections. Corrosion in the battery terminal connections is not uncommon and is pretty easy to check. I have never had corrosion problems with the other connections but it might be worth your time to break them apart and do a visual check for tell-tale white powder.

The first question anyone dealing with electronic will ask you is, "Have you unplugged and then plugged it back in a bit later?" Probably will not help in your situation but I have wasted time chasing ghosts that disappeared after a reboot.

I use the SLA 1075 from Interstate Battery for my replacements. Best I remember, they run about $20.

Hope this helps.

Flame, if I kept records like you, I would know how old the battery is. I am not good at record keeping and my memory storage is not what it used to be I bought a battery from Academy, I think the battery I am replacing came from there also, so it might not be the best battery choice out there. And aeb, after running game cameras for several years now, I have tried out many different brands when it comes to double AA batteries and discovered the best AA batteries are Interstate and will out last others by far. The problem is the only place I can find them is at the Interstate battery dealer and none can be located from other places or stores. So, I would bet Intrastate would also have the best battery for the TH Feeders. I need to check and see if they carry the 12 volt battery at the Intrastate battery dealers. I have not had a chance to change out the new battery, it's been raining for a couple of days and so I've not made it to the farm.


I will say it again, Intrastate battery has the best double AA batteries for your game cameras. And will out last other AA batteries. I have tried most every brand on many different brand name cameras, I think we have 6 out right now and have ran 11 of them in the past, and went through a lot of double AA's till we found Intrastate brand. And 2nd place was believe it or not Tractor Supply batteries. But only the ones that had the brand name Tractor supply and not their other double A's.

18 months, plus or minus a couple, is what I've gotten on my TH feeder batteries. That's usually the problem I run into, other than plants growing in the path of the feed and fire ants.

However, I did experience one instance where the solar panel was defective and had to be replaced. If you never see "charging" on the Menu, even when you put in a new battery, the solar panel is likely the culprit.

I have to agree with the 18 months but this time not so much. I seem to remember replacing this battery not so long ago. And that is why I am not sure it's the battery. I will make it out there today to change it out and hope it's just a bad battery. There are a few ants around the feeder but nothing like I had at another feeder. I did have to clean another TH feeder a few weeks ago because of ants. I never had an ant problem using the Cargils feed for 3 yrs but it started when I tried the Optimal and continues with the MVP, but it could just be that the ants would have shown up anyway.

I just think of ants as extra protein.
They hold on to the pellets and take the long ride.

Like you said, I considered ants were a plus when the feeder threw them into the pond. But I found out yesterday the ants were all up in the electronic parts of the feeder and that was causing the problem. Had to take the timer apart and blow air all through it removing the ants. I had to do the same to another TH feeder timer a few weeks back. What is it about electricity that attracts ants to nest up inside where there are electric panels, currents etc? When I noticed the problem with the timer the other day I did not see all the ants, but yesterday there were ants all over the timer, so I knew the ants were the problem because I had the same problem a few weeks back on another feeder.

Tracy, try Tanglefoot on your feeder legs. I've used it on hummingbird feeders and TH legs, and it stops ant movement almost instantly.

Applying it with an old butter knife, and and some throw away latex gloves will keep you from cussing me later.

Thanks Al, I will have to give it a try. cleaning out the electric panel of ants is time consuming and just a pain.

I use Aquamax MVP pellets with a TH LM135 feeder....it is two years old this month (March). I did not have any problems until the very end of last season with the last bag of feed I used.

The problem is this: when I fill the hopper and test the feeder all is well. However, when i come back a few days later the spin plate is jammed up by MVP pellets stuck between the spin plate and the bottom of the hopper. The spin plate will not move as a result. This did not happen until this last bag of feed.

So did i get a bag of MVP that made it through quality control but has at least some bigger pellets than other bags i have used? Or is the top motor for the spin plate going bad? When i run it dry the spin plate rotates perfectly with zero wobbling and no other apparent problems. The motor sounds like it is running fine.

I was going to first try and adjust the opening between the spin plate and the hopper by 1/16 inch or so to see if that solves the problem. Of course, i would need to re-adjust the timer since more feed would be thrown than when the "gap" was smaller.

Anyone else run into this problem with their TX Hunter feeder? Any advice would be most appreciated. Hopefully this will be easy to figure out. Thanks. BM61.

Mine will clog up occasion. In fact I had to clear up the slide (inside of the TH feeder) just yesterday. I also use the MVP feed but I had the same problem when I was using the Cargill feed. For me it seems to be caused by moisture and the feed will clump or a small ball of 3 to several pieces of feed cling together. I have adjusted all of my spin plates on 3 feeders to where I had to add some spacers (washers) to get the widest area when I was feeding the Cargills 1/4" size feed. And I am heading to Academy this morning for a new battery for one of the feeders.

Thanks Tracy. My feed is dry as a bone and it seems to be that two or three single, totally separate pieces get stuck in between the spin plate and hopper edge. They are jammed in there pretty tight and i had to use a stick to work them out on a couple of occasions. I have not detected any moisture at all in the hopper or around the spin plate.

Luckily this happened just over the last couple of weeks in late October before the water dropped below 55 degrees and I shut it down for the winter.

I plan to start feeding again this coming weekend as the water temp has moved to 55 or so just below the surface. I am hoping the easy fix....adjusting the spin plate.....will solve the problem. BM61.

I finally caved and switched to a TH feeder. Turned it on last wknd. Feeding Optima BG and Bass feed. I had to lower the plate a little to accommodate the bass pellets. I’m anxious to see on Fri if it has worked all week. Last summer I hardly used any feed. Every time I went up to check the AquaPro the feed level was the same as when I left it. Very economical to operate. I’m also throwing pellets twice as far over a broader area. I’m thinking the fish will like that.
During my test runs last weekend I saw swirls and splashes bigger than I’ve ever seen before. Maybe my mysterious HSB are still there? Or my SMB really grew over the winter.
I was just amazed at the quality of every component of the TH. Easily worth twice what a AquaPro is. Live and learn..
I’m hoping the solar charger can keep up. I have better exposure to the sub from the west than I do south. Too many trees. I’m just running it 2 x 8 seconds a day for now. Dawn and dusk.

When you adjusted the spin plate SG how much of an adjustment did you make? Was it more than 1/16 of an inch? The TX Hunter customer service guys suggested that I only adjust in very small increments. BM61.

About 1/16”. I watched the larger pellets get hung up. So I barely dropped it enough to let the pellets come out the top.
I sure wish they would have said something about that in the owners manual. I hope I didn’t screw something up.

Live and learn or listen to my advice years ago...either way.

I would like to have an automatic feeder that would throw the Aquamax LMB feed. Looks like TH Feeder made a few of them at one time but no longer. So I am considering the Texas Avenger model that is advertised in the PB mag. I'm not sure if it will throw the larger cubes but the two adds in the mag. looks like the Big Mouth, 80# model might. Anyone have any experience with the unit. If not then Maybe they might let me use it and report back. Maybe that might increase their market. Right now I am hand feeding, I love doing it but it would be a lot easier if I could find a dependable feeder that would throw the larger cubes.

Thanks SG.....i am going to do a 1/16th adjustment and see if that works. Finally warming here so need to fire up the feeder this weekend. thanks for the input.

And yes Tracy it looks like the #80 avenger would do the job. Not sure why TX Hunter has not come out with something that will toss the large cubes. Seems like my bigger LMBs don't have too much of a problem with the largest MVP pellets however. BM61.

Yep. Initial pond construction, alum treatments, seeding, stocking, then feeding. One of the few corners I tried to cut. Big mistake.

T - Sweeney made one specifically designed for AM LMB pellets years ago, from what I heard there were issues, but don't have details. I don't even know if Sweeney is still in business.

I also hand throw my LMB pellets [Optimal hand throw LMB formula] and the only downside to this is their feeding is dependent on my availability - and as an absentee land owner, I can't get there daily.

TJ, Sweeney's still rolling along. In fact, one will be here in a few weeks to throw my 3/8" pellets.

Sweet Al...let us know how it works out!

Al, do you know if the Sweeney feeder will throw the Aquamax or Optimal lmb feed? From what I have seen their sizes are for the most part the same size.


TJ, same same for me, hand feeding is not consistent as I would like it to be.


BM61, For me it's about getting the most I can in their belly without spending a lot of energy for a mouthful of feed. And they really attack those large cubes.


It would be nice if the Avenger would throw the large cubes. They are advertising in the PB Mag and it sounds like it would work But I would think a comment from them here on the forum might really increase their sales. Or an ADD here @ the top of the forum page might also help their sales.

Tracy, IIRC the Sweeney is rated to 1/2" pellets which is all I need. I only hand feed my 20 HSB Optimal hand throw or Purina LMB pellets because they disappear and show back up at the most random times. I fed them twice yesterday, and they ate almost 5#'s. Today, they didn't show up at all. I can't bring myself to dedicate a feeder to them knowing that, but I'm here on the property so it's much easier for me to feed them by hand.

Bob L has, or had, an Avenger so maybe he's tried the larger pellets and can be some help.

Your place is a lot larger than mine and so the hsb will show up at feeding times at my pond. I have learned the difference in the lmb attack verses the hsb attack when it comes to the lmb feed. Both will absolutely tear up the water to get the feed and I have seen some really nice growth of both these fish in the past year since I have been feeding the Aquamax lmb. I don't have any as large as the one you pictured the other day but I do have a few 5's in the pond. The last few I have landed looked GREAT! The 5 lb hsb was caught on my new 3 wt fly rod and a fly I tied.

A 5# HSB on a 3 wt had to be a tussle. When the feeder throws is usually when they show up here too. I just don't have enough experience with them to get a feel for times yet. Sometime's it's morning, and other times it's late in the afternoon. They didn't feed yesterday or this morning, and I've got no clue why other than they're roaming and eating small CNBG.

What is entertaining though is the occasional times they come up to the bank waiting with the CNBG for the feeder to throw.