Bay boat battery selection / charging question

I have a 21' skeeter with 36v Trolling motor. Have 3 optima for trolling motor and one for cranking, PP and electronics. Have dual pro onboard 4 bank charger. No issues. Almost went lithium, but couldn't justify the cost difference. Next boat will have lithium if prices come down.

I went back to Lead acid from AGM. It just didn't last. Lithium not recommended for some motors. I know there was a thread on it a while back.

quote:

---

The BMS in the lithiums just aren't up to the standards I would like to run one for my cranking battery. They are improving but I wouldn't trust them for a crank.

---

There is zero reason for this statement.

OP, I bet you would be fine with a high quality AGM. Only problem is, those are so expensive, there's very little incentive to avoid lithium with how the prices have gone down.

I have a 23 foot Hydra Sport bay boat running the exact setup they are recommending for you. I have a 36v trolling motor, a 9" & 7" Lowrance, and a fusion stereo. I run a 3 bank charger on the trolling motor batteries and no charger on the cranking. In 12 years with this setup I have never had a dead or even low cranking battery. I fish all day offshore running electronics, stereo and trolling motor. I kill the engine at every spot while we fish and have not once had an issue. i am not running any amps or stuuf on the stereo though, that might make a difference if you plan on that.

That’s clean work under there Captain! Couple questions, did you put a Voltage sensing relay between your house and cranking and or two trolling batteries or are they rigged straight parallel and what does that power pole charger do that your alternator can’t? Guessing it passes on charging current to trolling batts also?

I dont have a voltage relay. I have 2, 36v lithium. They are straight parallel. The power pole charge works as a charging system off the alternator. It boosts the charge and also senses what batteries need the charge. It also has a app which gives you full control of the charging. I fish in a lot of current down here and I rarely see my trolling batteries dip below 90%. I use 2 of them because I need the bigger amp hours an Power House did not make a 80ah at the time. So I used 2,40's. I actually believe using 2 40's has more capacity than a single 80ah.

I have fished and guided for a long time and that power pole charge unit is one of the best things I have ever invested in. And it was not given to me, I paid for it. I basically do not have battery concerns while I am fishing and just ignore them now. While going offshore, I dont even use a anchor anymore while staying on structure. Just put motor down and it recharges from place to place and fully tops off all the batteries on the ride in

The power pole charge unit also has a jump feature where you can pull from other batteries to start your engine if you run the starting battery down.

Lanier or someone who knows PP charge:
I have 2 cranking /1 crank 1 “house” and 3 12v TM batteries. The 2 cranking batteries have a selector for 1-2 and off. Could i hook the PP charge to all 3 tms and run the crankers in 2 battery mode on the selctor switch? On the app configuration just enter the total amp hours of the 2 cranking batteries? It makes sense in my mind but that has gotten me in trouble before. I currently have a minn kota charger for TMs and Noco on my crankers. I haven’t had any issues yet but would love the ability to charge my TM batteries on the run and not have to fight for a shore connection. My lead batteries are only a year old and I’ll got to 36v lithium when i replace

Go with Interstate lead for TMs
Go with a lithium for all electronics
Go with lead or AGM for starting (have a 2nd one on a Perko)

What’s the concern using a single 4 bank charger? Your 36V trolling motor batts will be (3) 12v batteries paralleled I assume (unless you were going the single 36V lithium route, but I wouldn’t do that. Been there, done that, and it isn’t worth it IMO)

4th bank goes to crank battery, which “overflows” to house via ACR when charging. In my boat the crank batteries pretty much stay charged off alternator anyway since their only load is engine, so when I plug in it immediately clicks the ACR on and charges the house. One charger/plug to plug in keeps it simple.

Only reason I wouldn’t do that is if your trolling motor batteries aren’t located near your crank/house battery. In that case yeah do a 3 bank for TM and 1 or 2 bank for crank/house. Do the ACR either way, unless you already have an aux charging lead from motor ran. For charger I’d go with a NOCO Genius. I probably won’t ever use anything else, they’re awesome.

FWIW I’ve been running a similar ACR setup I described above for a while now, but with triple engine + house bank. 3-bank Noco Genius (5 Amp X 3) charger with one lead to each engine battery, and each engine battery has an ACR to house. Never had any power issues even with engines off for several hours, and I have a TON of stuff to try to kill it with

My only experience with lithium is a single 36V battery we put on last boat for a Rhodan trolling motor. Mainly did it because it was a little smaller than (3) 12V cells. It was WAYYYYY more expensive than (3) AGM 12V cells, and I was not impressed at all with how long its charge lasted. And we even had it charge off motors when Running Spot to spot offshore.

The regular 12V lithium ones may be fine, don’t have any real experience with them. I’ve just never had any issues with AGM so I stick with what’s worked for me.