Cody191

If you hook kicker and main to start battery and then run a system like I mentioned, you would keep both start and tm batteries charged as much as possible when running either motor. I think it’s the best way.

You can do this but I would keep your kicker wired to the start battery. Then run wires from that battery to the tm batteries with some sort of charging relay or combiner in line. You want a system that only charges the tm batteries once the start battery is full and the system should not allow power to drain backwards in the event your start battery is lower voltage than tm batteries. It’s been awhile but yandina combiner and blue sea ACR come to mind. Worth a look to do it right.

So what specifically are the problems with the “china junk”? Curious so I can keep my eye out for these issues. Also, where are the cells and bms for pro guide lithium batteries produced? There website doesn’t have much info on their actual construction. I’m also interested in what makes them 2.5 times better than a cheap china lithium as $900 a piece compared to $350. I mean $2700 to run a trolling motor is pretty steep.

I bought ampere time off Amazon. They are on year 4 and have been great. Definitely saved a lot of money going off brand but be advised they do not have a low temp charge protection BMS. I already had the power pole charge so that handles that aspect. It’s just my opinion but I do not believe you will get a battery twice as good if you spend twice as much. Seems like if you really dig into it there mostly all made in china anyway. Also you did not mention your intended purpose for this battery. Not all of them are rated as crank batteries. So if your planning a dual purpose house/crank battery, that will really limit your options.

You are most likely referring to lithium ion batteries. They are different than lifepo4 batteries which are more stable and becoming very popular for marine applications. There biggest pros are double the run time and much lighter. The only cons in my opinion are the price and if you charge them in freezing temps you can permanently damage them. There are way’s around this though. Way to much info for me to explain. I recommend doing your research. My setup is 3 12v lifepo4 batteries running my 36v ulterra and my powerpole charge protects them from charging in freezing temps. The higher end batteries have internal circuitry to not allow charging at certain temps. The very high end ones even have heaters in them. I fish a lot of inland lakes and hardly use my kicker now. I can troll cranks at 2.5mph for 6-8 hours now. Would get maybe 3-4 hours previously. And I catch more in stealth mode with no kicker running. For Lake Ontario style fishing I still use the kicker. With riggers and divers it’s just to much drag for trolling motor only. I also dropped 150 pounds out of my boat. It handles much better.