Ross Robertson from Big Water Fishing breaks down everything you need to know about lithium batteries and their place in your boat.
Technology has really taken over in fishing whether it’s electronics, live sonar, boats whatever it may be. However, it’s necessary to understand how to power these things. Lithium batteries have been a buzzword in the boating world lately, but there’s a lot of misunderstandings that need to be clarified for you to properly implement lithium batteries in your boat.
For starters, lithium batteries have changed significantly in a short amount of time. Ross demonstrates the difference between the 1st generation Dakota Lithium 100 Ah battery and the 2nd generation Dakota Lithium 130 Ah battery. In a short amount of time these batteries have continued to get lighter and more compact. These are massive changes compared the to lead acid batteries many of us are use to using in the past.
The 2nd generation battery is also now a dual purpose battery now. This is an also a big change in the lithium world. Technically it can be used for cranking (although Ross doesn’t typically use it for that) but it definitely can be used for jump starting. Therefore he uses it for his trolling motor. In his particular setup he uses three 2nd generation dual purpose batteries to power his trolling motor and one standalone for his electronics. A big benefit of these dual purpose batteries is their ability to be exchanged if needed, in his case between his electronics and his trolling motor if necessary. This is especially nice if one of the batteries go down.
Another benefit of these batteries that they are typically going to be compatible with one of your regular chargers. Ross uses a Minnkota Precision charger, and relies on that to take care of all of his charging. However when doing this it’s important to keep in mind the difference in volts between a traditional charger and a lithium charger. These batteries will charge in 14.4 volts where traditional or sealed lead acid batteries will charge at 13.3 volts when using your traditional charger. So in theory, this battery’s only gonna get 90 some percent charged. It’ll never be fully charged.
However, in this case there are still going to be three maybe four times the capacity then what would be in the lithium battery however it’s not gonna be fully charged. So a lithium charger would technically be better because it’s charging at a higher rate, but is no way necessary.
In summary, Ross uses three Dakota Lithium 130 Ah 2nd Gen Batteries to power his trolling motor, and one designated battery to power his electronics. He uses his original Minnesota Precision charger to charge them, and will often swap between batteries if one goes down. Since the improvement of the lithium battery in recent years, he has chosen to run the core components of his boat with his 2nd Gen Dakota batteries.
