Trolling motor in river Jon boat

[fishinwrench]

There's two ways to think here ....

Go light and move slowly, and you can hop out and drag the boat into deeper water if you need to.

OR,  go heavy, hammer down, and let the momentum of the extra weight slide you through. (What stops a Prius will usually not stop a Peterbuilt).

[Jerry Rapp]

6 hours ago, Jdecoudres said:

What game changers does lithium batteries do?

up to 70% weight savings.  One 24V battery vs. 2 twelve volt batteries.

Sounds great. But..........  cost averages around $1500 a battery.  

But......supposedly 3,000 charging cycles, life of 10 years.

Bass Boat Central has many discussions about them.  Here is one link - http://www.bbcboards.net/showthread.php?t=955767

Google Lithium Trolling Motor batteries and you can read for days.

The technology is improving each year.  If I ran a jet boat and was serious about the weight issue, I would definitely research them thoroughly.  But my common sense side would tell me to wait a few more years, as the technology advances and prices drop some more.

 

 

[Seth]

If money was no object though, I'd definitely have a pair of 36v Lithium pros since I don't have room for a fourth battery in my bilge. That would be the dream!

From a $$$ standpoint though, I paid $200 for a set of Everstart 29DC batteries and got almost five years out of them before I proactively replaced them. They were still working well. Lets figure I get four years out of a set of lead Everstarts, I'd have to get about 60 years of battery life out of them to break even. That goes down when you start comparing AGM's though as though are 2-3x the price of a lead battery. There's just not enough benefit there for me to justify going the lithium route. Hopefully the price comes down in the future and puts them in reach of the average angler.

[JamiePatterson]

I’ve got an 80 pound thrust Minnkota riptide on my 60 inch bottom topwater. I love it! Batteries are under the front deck. No big deal at all, but it’s also a big boat. I used to have a 36 V on an aluminum tunnel hull. In the Louisiana marsh the thing acted like a dang mud motor. 12 volt trolling motors make me cranky lol.

[Jdecoudres]

4 hours ago, JamiePatterson said:

I’ve got an 80 pound thrust Minnkota riptide on my 60 inch bottom topwater. I love it! Batteries are under the front deck. No big deal at all, but it’s also a big boat. I used to have a 36 V on an aluminum tunnel hull. In the Louisiana marsh the thing acted like a dang mud motor. 12 volt trolling motors make me cranky lol.

How long is your boat? I don't have a topwater but I do have an Xtreme and I think they are pretty much built the same. 

[JamiePatterson]

20 long (heck, maybe 21???) with a 60 inch bottom. 60/40 merc jet. I do run 2 group 27 batteries up front. Save 10 or 15lb over group 31s. Never have ran em empty in a days fishing. Got a cheapo onboard charger up there to top em off.