Lithium batteries

Really interested in getting some weight out of my boat so I have looking at lithium batteries. Man those things are high!! Curious what those that have made the switch feel about them. Are the benefits with the price?? Would you do it again once they go bad or if you were to get a new boat? Also interested in what brands y’all have chosen and which brands are cheaper. I have a 24 volt trolling motor so is it best to by 2 12 volt batters or one 24 volt battery? Any advice or experiences will be appreciated. Thanks.

I think you have to figure in the cost of a new charger still.

Pretty common topic on here actually. Just use the search function. Lots of good opinions

I had my first (not so good) experience with 36V lithium troller batts a few weeks ago in a brand new Phoenix. Don't want to bash a product because I am sure they will work out the issues but it was less than impressive. PM me if you want the 411.

Love mine, went with relion.

50ah for trolling
100ah start

Have never had either die up to 11 hours of fun fishing and plenty of 8 hour tourneys with live scope, 360 on and two other 12 helix slept as well as live wells on manual all day. One tourney I spent 7 hours spot lock or moving around in current and 18 mph winds. No issues. Still 39 volts at the end of the day.

I used my regular charger for a while but finally got a programmed dual pro and it charges them much faster like 3-4 hours to recharge my start battery and run it thru the full charge cycle.

I have a stealth charge on the run to charge my 36v.

Not a fan. I work in the mobile phone repair industry. Every mobile phone manufacture uses lithium batteries and I've seen my share of batteries expand, explode or catch fire. I've not done any research on the batteries called out in the thread in terms of design to handle the beating batteries in a bass boat take. But if an UPS, FedEx and all of the airlines have special rules for lithium batteries due to the reasons mentioned I don't want them on my boat. Again, just my option and like butts everyone has one.
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Personally i must say your going to get many different opinion.
I talked to at least 5 different batteries suppliers, I am still not sure who makes what. Or the best.
I do know that there are many different approaches to buying batteries.
Some of the suppliers will want to sell you a smaller batteries. And try and convince you they will be enough.
I found that if you read the reviews posted by some of the people that took the plunge that smaller is nice, but they don't always get the job done.
Options are 3 35ah for 36 volt
two for 35 ah for 24 volt
Than the next up is 50 ah hours batteries.
If you are the weekend fisherman and don't fish multiple days these smaller batteries are for you. And will most likely make you happy.
I chose three 100ah batteries for my boat. And a 1 125ah for the starter motor.
I have only fished with them 5 days. Three in 10/20 mph and they preformed great. They Have the BMS system so you will be able to look on your phone to see the usage. The lowest i seen them so far was 68% after 12 hours of fishing main lake humps .
Worth the investment,, not sure but since my rig is paid for,, I looked at it as a good upgrade.

I have used Lithiums in two of my boats. I had a 24v Fortex then upgraded to Ultrex. I used two 12V 50AH Battle Born batteries for the TM. These were a straight drop fit replacement for two 29Ms. I had a Minn Kota 3 bank charger. I reprogrammed for the AGM setting and never looked back.
I now have a 36V Ultrex. This round I went with Ionic 12V 50AH batteries. They had a better price and came with a Bluetooth app to connect to the batteries. You can check status on usage and charging.

I prefer the 12V batteries since they were a drop fit replacement and worked with my charger I already had.
Lithiums are a great way to go. Consistent power over a longer period and a much shorter charging cycle.

I would avoid Ionic personally, first the app ability is not needed and is just one more thing to fail. Second they hit the market recently as Stark and went bankrupt, so who knows if they got enough stock built up in that transaction or if they will be around for warranty in 2 years. Third their business plan is pretty hoaky, Anyone can sign up to be a dealer. A month after being on the market they raised the prices, Id say that was their plan since they got some dealers to sell some and now their name comes up in threads like this... I signed up to be a dealer with them and after weeks of trying to decipher information and deal with them I am glad I didnt switch over to their batteries and start trying to sell them. I dont sell anything I dont truly believe in and theres way too much shade around Ionic for me to want anything to do with it.

Ionic vs Relion or battle born the price is not very different, at least not different enough to take the risk and Im not on a budget.

If you want to monitor your charge you can buy a dual battery gauge for a measly $11 on ebay, I have mine by my charger but its not really needed, once the charger goes green unplug it, pretty simple, I havent came close to killing my lithiums on the water.

I could be wrong maybe theyll be around and maybe theyll stand behind their product and maybe it wont have issues with the extra added board for the app etc. I hope thats the case because they are definitely selling a lot of batteries due to the price.

Been running LI for several years and I never really think about them which I suppose means they're doing what I intended them to do. Would I get LI again? Sure, why not? I currently have Relion, but there are several out there and I don't hear many bad reports on any of them.

Have been running Relion for couple years now. 4 80AH. The only issue is really cold weather (close to feeezing) if the boat sits outside overnight. The crank battery was really slow one morning from that. Fortunately the optimax fires up so quick it wasn't a real issue. Power capacity is crazy. You can't run the trolling motor system down in two plus days of typical fishing. My crank runs 3 HDS 12 lives ..dual poles...pumps..lights. No screen flickering or slow starts at the end of the day. With a life span of 3000 cycles these batteries should last a long long time for the average guy.

Proper charging is essential...I sent my dual pro back to have the banks programmed for the relion profile. It was around 120 bucks with shipping and turn around was aweek or so.

Good info Dean. Good to see you're still around!

35ah would be small for anyone who may fish a tournament ever in my opinion to me the price savings vs 50ah wouldnt be worth the risk to me of ruining a fishing trip, not to mention resale would surely be very limited.

The only place Ive ever seen anyone ever mention 35 ah for bass fishing is the guy on here posting his add, who posts misinformation on a regular basis, like when he recently said you would have 150ah with 3 50ah trolling batteries.. CLEARLY he isnt who I would want to shop with.

I recently went with 2 Battleborn 100AH for trolling motor and 1 relion 100HP for starting.

Battery performance has been great. Haven't even come close to running them down at all and they charge fast using my existing minnkota precision.

Boat performance changed a lot. I'm having to work on dialing in the boat with jackplate again after reducing so much weight off the back (about 140 lbs). Boat sat much higher - actually lost a little speed on the top end until I dropped the motor down again.

Howdy Ken...hope all is well. Yep I check in on the TFF fairly often...just dont post much here.

Jeff From Iowa,
Name names please.
If you’re speaking of my ad in Trading Post, You REALLY need to go back & re read my comments in our ad. I do not claim that 3-35 Ah batteries give you 150Ah’s. It says 105Ah's. That's also not right,MY MISTAKE ALSO. when posting after a long day. It SHOULD state 3-35Ah batteries for a 36V system 35Ah system. We tested that system personally & it performed as well as 100Ah systems when combined with Stealth Charge on the go, because Lithium charges 3-5x's faster. We ALSO sell up to 110Ah true cranking battery from Stealth & 100 Ah deep cycle type group 31 size batteries in 4 brands, for those that NEED those systems. We are trying to HELP the working man on a smaller budget.
We ARE as much about getting correct info in battery application out there as possible & I made a mistake in my post. The main reason we sell 4 different brands is to put together the BEST systems at the BEST pricing we Can offer
Please re read the ad, & I invite you to send me a pm if you have issues with it. I sent you a pm with my contact info & phone number.
Education is our priority, since they ARE more expensive. CHOOSING the correct product for YOUR application is the only way to go. Prismatic cells work best in flat batteries (cell phones) type applications where space is priority. Cylindrical cells work best for keeping temperature down during charge/discharge cycles. More room for heat dissipation in batteries over a larger surface.
Please Pm me Jeff, according to rules, IF it’s my ad.

I probably shouldn't be getting in the middle of this since I have never seen the ad or have a dog in the fight . And i'm not trying to start anything either. But you said you would like to get accurate information out there. I just wanted you to know that three 12 volt 35ah hour batteries in series gives you 36 volts and 35ah no matter what kind of batteries they are.

Yep your the one. That doesnt know what hes talking about.

I am Not sure if it was in your add or in posts on here and quite frankly I dont care in the least.

Multiple people have set you straight but you still are posting the wrong information even in this post....

Hopefully everyone else is smart enough to see you dont know what your talking about and find a dealer that does.

Running 3 35ah batteries to run your trolling motor (36v) DOES not equal 105 ah..

[/quote] I probably shouldn't be getting in the middle of this since I have never seen the ad or have a dog in the fight . And i'm not trying to start anything either. But you said you would like to get accurate information out there. I just wanted you to know that three 12 volt 35ah hour batteries in series gives you 36 volts and 35ah no matter what kind of batteries they are. [/quote]


Hes been corrected multiple times on here by multiple people, I dont think I ever even bothered to correct him.

Maybe Curtbass meant to state that a 35 AH lithium battery will perform the same as a 105 AH lead/acid battery. Much lighter weight battery for the same work.

I’m 100% lithium now. It sure changed how my boat handles.

I no longer struggle to get on plane with a full load of fuel and full livewells

My apologies. I'll own my mistake. Yes I do mean to say that the 3 12V batteries used as a 36V SYSTEM with 35 AH's is still 35Ah's , but when ran with a Stealth Charge on the go it will perform as well as a 100Ah system. I will correct that. My mistake on that that system is in trying to keep up with the different setups we are trying to test. The reason is to try to get it affordable enough for more people to benefit. Once again, My apologies. I own my mistakes.
Batteries wired in series, combines voltage of batteries in most bass boat applications.
Batteries wired in parallel, combines capacity (Ah's) & can be used with multiple 24V or 36V batteries to increase AH's capacity
A combination of series AND parallel wiring can allow voltage & Ah increases.

I could definitely see how that setup would perform like that.

I've been running Lithium Pro batteries since March and love them. I have 2 50 ah for my TM and a 80 ah for my cranking battery. Fish all day and never get below 90% so far, recharge quick with a standard AGM charger. IMO worth the money but as some one else stated my boat is paid off so it was a great upgrade.