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LAFB Elite | Inshore Fishing Courses Designed For Louisiana › Forums › General Inshore Fishing Discussion › Lithium Batteries › Reply To: Lithium Batteries

  • Boyce

    Member
    April 28, 2025 at 7:55 pm

    There is definitely merit to what @Jonathan is saying.

    My main hold up on getting the cranking battery was the charging issue. I was concerned it would fry my alternator because I had read about that and saw a YouTube video of some guy that reviews batteries talking about that. This has been on my mind for 2 years.

    I watch a lot of Bass fishing stuff on YouTube and I started noticing that a lot of guys in the Elite Series were starting to run LiFePO4’s as their cranking battery, and would run all their electronics off it as well. Well, they do this for a living and depend on those motors, so if they’re doing it then I need to look into again.

    I found this guy on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@goodmanfishing?si=gq_ztstEXcC5JkdW

    I stumbled across a video of him testing marine batteries that he was going to use on his boat. After looking through his channel, come to find out he’s an engineer. Engineers are typically some of the smartest and most analytical people out there, so the more and more I watched his stuff, I knew he was legit and knows his sh*t. He actually runs my same battery set up on his 2019 Tracker with a 115 Mercury. I run a 2022 Ranger with a 75 Mercury. So I emailed him asking him about the charging issue I had read about. He basically said he has had no issues and that the BMS’s on the old lithium batteries with different chemistries apparently, aren’t as robust as these new batteries and their BMS’s. (He gave a much cooler, engineer type answer than that).

    I’m not an engineer, but I’m a pretty analytical guy myself. So of course I did some research on what he said, and it all came back legit.

    I have Mercury Vessel View, so I can monitor my engine’s performance in real time, and I have the app to monitor the batteries. So this past Saturday, I pulled up both apps on my phone while I was running on plane so I could see what they were saying the battery was charging at. It’s rated to be charged by up a 60? Amp Alternator I want to say, I’ll have to check. I just wanted to compare what each app was telling me to see if anything looked off.

    The Mercury Vessel View app was showing me that on plane, it was charging the battery around 14 volts. The LiTime app said the same thing. That made me happy.

    I’m still unsure of how it’s going to turn out. But after all that research, I was willing to take a chance. It may fry my alternator, who knows. Hopefully not lol.

    It’s something I’ll monitor going forward and will of course report back. But so far so good!

    I also think the age of an outboard and type of charging system have a lot to do with it. I think Stator type charging systems may have some issues even with the new batteries, but I’m not 100% certain on that.

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