1-24v or 2-12v lithium batteries

I’m looking into switching to lithium batteries and I like the idea of being able to use 1 24v. My batteries are below my rod locker and I use mostly spinning reels so I have to turn them on their sides and either collapse the handles or get them positioned right to fit. If I can remove 1 battery I would be able to let the reels hang down and they would fit better. I’m looking at the amped outdoors 24v 80ah which comes with their charger. My trolling batteries are only used for trolling motor and I usually have my GB70 power pack in the boat in case of a dead battery. Any downsides going with just the one battery? This is what my battery compartment look like now.

I have an Amped 24v trolling motor battery with Amped 24v charger. I also debated going with 2-12v in series and went with the 24v strictly off recommendation from Amped. I would contact them to chat about it, they were very responsive for me.

The positives are efficiency, smaller footprint, only having 1 battery to maintain, etc. The negative is not having 12v power readily available, which is a lot more useful than having 24v power available. I used to run an aerator of the trolling motor batteries, obviously don’t anymore. Another thing is I always wanted is one of those Minn Kota alternator chargers to keep trolling batteries charged on camping trips. Now I haven’t looked into if that’s even an option with 12v lithium but I highly doubt it’s an option with 24v lithium.

Oh another negative is I had to re-wire my marinco 12/24 plug and receptacle, which took me a few tries to get done right Doesn’t look like you’ll have that problem since you currently have them jumpered together.

The biggest thing would be run time.

Amp hours are amp hours, and you can only get so much out of one battery.

Two batteries double your run time.

I just received my new Amped outdoors 24v 80AH battery yesterday. I did a lot of research about battery manufacturers and settled on Amped. I also went with amped outdoors recommendation to go with one 24v instead of two 12v. It weighs 31 lbs, so in addition to saving my back, there won’t be as much weight in the front of the boat. I have a Lund Impact 1875 with a force trolling motor.

B-man wrote:

Two batteries double your run time.

1-24v 80ah battery has the same capacity as 2-12v 80ah batteries

Stanley, I can’t tell in your photo or not but make sure your charger is lithium-compatible. Not every charger is. I know mine aren’t.

Epoch has a 24v 100AH for $1200. Enter Holiday15 and it brings it down to about $1000. These have had great reviews

.

I plan on getting a 36v battery for my setup.

One other negative is you can’t just run to walmart and buy a new battery if you have an issue with a 24v or 36v. Say, you have a battery issue when running (2) 12v batteries, just grab a new one and keep fishing. It’s not going to be that simple when running a 24v or 36v battery. Unless of course you just but (2) or (3) batteries.
Now, this is were the warranty and customer service really come into play. I know Amped has been very reliable when it comes to issues like I mentioned above. He may send a battery out that same day, and you’re up and running the next, depending on your location.

I went with 12v batteries. Primary reasons were I could use my existing charger and if I had to revive one I could jump from another 12 volt battery.

gim wrote:

Stanley, I can’t tell in your photo or not but make sure your charger is lithium-compatible. Not every charger is. I know mine aren’t.

I have a minnkota precision charger that doesn’t have a lithium option but I believe James said he had the same charger and the AGM setting would charge lithiums but if I go 24v I would need a new charger regardless.

For clarification the boat is a alumacraft comp 185 with a 80lb terrova. I rarely get to fish more than 1 day a week so if I had to warranty the battery it probably wouldn’t be a big issue. I also have other batteries at home I could substitute if needed.

2 12 volts will not give you longer run time than 1 24 of equal amperage I switched my system over from 3 12 to 2 36 volts my 12 volts were 100 ah deep cycle and my 36 are 60 amp so in parallel I have 120 ah I have not run this system out juice yet but only had it for last week of October until freeze up

The other thing I thought about doing was cutting out the foam in the picture and moving everything up to make more room for the reels to hang down and keep the 2 batteries.

Stanley wrote:

The other thing I thought about doing was cutting out the foam in the picture and moving everything up to make more room for the reels to hang down and keep the 2 batteries.

That’s what I did on my old 185T.

I did have that guys at work weld in the plate I made as well.

Jake D wrote:

Epoch has a 24v 100AH for $1200. Enter Holiday15 and it brings it down to about $1000. These have had great reviews

Do these have the hot and cold sensors ? Do they have the built in heater to charge in cold conditions

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>B-man wrote:</div>
Two batteries double your run time.

1-24v 80ah battery has the same capacity as 2-12v 80ah batteries

Yeah I worded my reply wrong and edited it, you’re 100% right.

But adding a second battery would double the run time.

Bearcat89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Jake D wrote:</div>
Epoch has a 24v 100AH for $1200. Enter Holiday15 and it brings it down to about $1000. These have had great reviews

Do these have the hot and cold sensors ? Do they have the built in heater to charge in cold conditions

They do, at least all the batteries I have looked at have a heater. I believe they can be charged down to like -5F.

They also have molded mounting feet, so you don’t need an additional tray.

Bearcat89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Jake D wrote:</div>
Epoch has a 24v 100AH for $1200. Enter Holiday15 and it brings it down to about $1000. These have had great reviews

Do these have the hot and cold sensors ? Do they have the built in heater to charge in cold conditions

Yes they do, also have bluetooth to monitor it on your phone. I ordered a 12v 50amp today to run my graphs off of. Probably be going to order a 36v 50AH for my trolling motor this summer at some point depending how my batteries hold up

I have been running a 24v 100ah for a year in my boat. I tried to run it dead this summer on the river over 3 days and it was still going strong at the end. It is definitely overkill for my boat.

What’s the best option, run a single 24v or 2 12v? I have been considering jumping to lithium lately and as often as I read about them here I guess I still don’t know what’s best for my 24v motorguide

I went the 36 volt route but x2 I don’t think I would have needed the 2 but I didn’t want to modify my battery area and the 100 amp hour 36 wouldn’t fit in current tray space. I did 2 36 volt 60 amp hour and then put in a 12 volt for all my electronics

Pro’s for single 24 volt battery. less weight, possible slight savings over 2 12 volt batteries. Take up less room.
Cons for 24 volt you will need to buy a 24 volt charger. You can’t use it as an emergency backup.

Pro’s for 2 12 volt. Your current charger may be able to charge them. Can be used as an emergency backup

I am hoping to not need to run a generator this year when up on rainy for 5 days with no power.

michael keehr wrote:

I am hoping to not need to run a generator this year when up on rainy for 5 days with no power.

You can always install a run n gun charger as well. That way you are charging your TM batteries every time you run the big motor.

TillrLife wrote:

You can always install a run n gun charger as well. That way you are charging your TM batteries every time you run the big motor.

Ive had a stealth DC charger for it seems like 8 years and its fantastic. Spend a week in Canada and never charge my trolling motor batteries. I am not sure if it works with lithium batteries however.

TillrLife wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>michael keehr wrote:</div>
I am hoping to not need to run a generator this year when up on rainy for 5 days with no power.

You can always install a run n gun charger as well. That way you are charging your TM batteries every time you run the big motor.

How long would the motor have to run to make something like that worth it? Depending on the lake my motor might only see 20min to an hour total.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>TillrLife wrote:</div>
You can always install a run n gun charger as well. That way you are charging your TM batteries every time you run the big motor.

Ive had a stealth DC charger for it seems like 8 years and its fantastic. Spend a week in Canada and never charge my trolling motor batteries. I am not sure if it works with lithium batteries however.

There’s DC chargers that work with lithium batteries (LFP), but I’m not sure if there’s options that work with 24v batteries since the alternator output is 12v. I haven’t looked into it a ton, just chatted with Amped about it and they said it’s fine to charge their batteries that way, but they don’t recommend it because it’s can be hard on the outboard’s charging system

tswoboda wrote:

they don’t recommend it because it’s can be hard on the outboard’s charging system

Ive heard that rumor before, but I havent had any issues in all the years Ive used it. I think a bigger issue would be if your outboard doesnt kick out enough amps to sufficiently charge it. My suzuki 150 kicks out like 50 amps at right around idle from what I have read. The stealth dc model has more technology built into than the minnkota alternative. The owner gives out his personal cell phone to call if you ever have issues and I called him a couple times when I was hitting a brain fart with the wiring of it. He sells a lot of these to install into patrol cars too because of all the electronics they have in their squads.

There are DC-DC chargers which charge 12v, 24v and 36v and likely more, just those are the most common in the marine world. Some even have tech for what your cranking/starting battery is; IE Flooded, AGM or Lithium.

You likely won’t see any change in charge status if you’re only running 20 minutes a day. I doubt you are totally recharging your cranking battery during a 20 minute run. Unless all that battery does is start your motor; another battery for electronics, radio, livewell, ect.

A DC-DC charger should not strain your alternator at all regardless of the output voltage to your batteries. The alternator will just “see” it as your cranking battery.

Yeah I’m not pretending to know what I’m talking about, just passing along what the guy at Amped told me. I know the DC chargers are getting more and more popular, and that’s the first time I heard anyone say it was hard on the charging system. Also always heard the Stealth1 was top of the line.

It looks like Stealth1 does have options that work with a 12v flooded/agm starting battery and single 24v or 36v Lithium trolling battery.