https://ampedoutdoors.com/collectio...v-trolling-motor-lithium-battery-lifepo4

They are out right now but this appears to be a huge drop in price for a 60ah 36v battery, with charger.
$1299.

wow......I might try one of these.

I've had 3 of the Amped Outdoors 60ah 12V batteries on my troller for a couple of months and they are ridiculous. You could actually get my set up for a little over $1K if you already have a charger that can handle lithium. I have an Ultrex and have run it for two 8-10 hour days without charging in between them. And of course one of the main advantages in Lithium is absolutely no drop off in power over those two days. Charger was all green within 4 hours after that test as well. Dropped 180# of weight in the back of the boat and gained a lot of room in the bilge area as well. I have no affiliation whatsoever with Amped Outdoors- just sharing my experience.

Have you guys tried lithium for starter battery? I need to replace my starter battery that also runs electronics and have been looking into lithium.

I have an Ionic 125AH Lithium as my starter battery for the past 9 months or so and it has performaed flawlessly. Got it from Andy on BBC.
https://drewcraft.com/product/125ah-12v-ionic-lithium-battery/

Shoot for that price you could get 2 and run them in parallel lol.

I got a price on one of those and a couple of the 50's to go in mine and I will almost certainly swap over at some point in the future.

I get it as I thought the same for a long time. But the X2 power 31 AGM that everyone fawns over is $400+ tax and has a 4 year warranty, so I'm guessing 5 year max on life with diminishing power year over year. I got the 125ah Lithium on sale, little to no diminishing power through out the day or year over year, 41 pounds lighter, charge to full in less than 2 hours, and supposed to last twice as long (jury is out on that obviously). The trolling batteries were a no brainer for me as they are much more reasonably priced.
BTW, you would never need two of em in parallel no matter what you ran on the boat- but I know you were being facetious.

That battery charger looks like it wouldn’t last a month in a boat, but what do I know. It’s certainly doesn’t look sealed, waterproof, or even water resistant.

Steez I would think you'd just take it in and out maybe. I would't mind that at all.


I am really giving that 36V some thought.

NEVER NEVER EVER DO THAT! (run any batteries in parallel) by choice on a boat, or elsewhere if you can help it. The reason is that as they age, one will discharge faster than the other, and that one will drag the other one down with it. If one has a bad cell, the other one will discharge itself trying to (unsuccessfully) charge the other. It does that as they are just sitting there, connected to each other, not just when you are running the trolling motor. Yes, the BMS in Lithium batteries will control this somewhat, but it's still not as ideal as a series battery setup.

Regardless of battery chemistry used, for trolling motor applications, it is far better to run a higher voltage motor so that you have properly sized batteries in series. Example, a particular power output (pounds of thrust) for a 12V battery/trolling motor might run at 50A load. You can get that same power output in a 24V system running a ~25A load. Guess which discharges batteries faster?

If I were going to run two 36V Lithium battery banks (because one might not last long enough), I would run off one until it reaches discharge, then switch to the other. That could be done with a mini-cutoff battery switch, or a setup with a manually switchable breaker on the wiring to each 36V battery. The breaker outputs would be wired together, and you'd turn only one on at any given time to get the desired battery isolation.

Most Lithium batteries are not designed to perform as starting batteries. The technology lends itself far more readily to deep cycle applications. If you do go lithium for the starting battery, make sure you get a heavy duty one that is designed to BE a starting battery.

Part of the issue is these batteries all have a built in "BMS" (Battery Management System). This is a circuit board that sits between the bank of lithium cells inside the box and the connection to the outside world. It will protect the cells from an overcharge voltage by disconnecting much like a circuit breaker. Your outboard could present such an overcharge voltage from the BMS viewpoint. That would be like disconnecting your battery while the outboard is running. Disconnecting the battery is often a no-no that will destroy parts of the outboard's charging system, and nobody wants that. The legitimate Lithium batteries designed to be starting batteries take these matters into account, and have design features to avoid the aforementioned pitfalls.

This a great company. I had a 50 amp go bad and he sent me a new one and a call tag for the old one.
Then contaced me to tell me that he had never seen one do what mine did and Thanked me for contacting him so he could make it right.
I 've had some other dealing with them and been nothing but happy.

Would it be better to just get a big AGM instead of dealing with the lithium battery down falls. I'm sure that the ones built for starting would be fine but sure that cost difference would make cost me about 3 of the AGM batteries. Weight isn't that big of an issue on my boat. Although when the trolling motor batteries need replaced that will be lithium.

Great to hear, 9094. One certainly likes to be careful when dropping that much coin. I prefer a 12V battery setup so that I have a swtchout option in a bind. With one 36V enclosure, if it fails, you are done. With 3 12V "batteries" you have other options to get back on the water quickly if need be.