Just bought a used 2023 Tracker Pro Guide V175 with a 115HP Mercury. The old trolling motor battery was dead so I changed it out to a lithium 140Ah. The NOCO genius GEN 5X2 will charge the lithium battery with AC, but I am wondering if the outboard charges the trolling motor.
Charging the trolling motor on a Tracker Pro Guide V175
- Thread starter GFTX23175
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Generally not. Usually charge TM batteries with a charger. Be sure you have the correct charger for Lithium batteries. Normal chargers are not recommeded to be used on them.
Technically you could hook everything up to charge the trolling motor battery off the main motor but in simple terms the trolling motor sucks more "juice" than the main motor can supply. And with lithium batteries you can make 3 or 4 trips before they need recharging and actually they recommend running the lithium batteries down before you recharge them. Added to which you can get an app for your phone that will tell you how much juice you have left in your lithium batteries. I made the switch from lead-acid to lithium a year ago and am delighted. I did a trip 2 days ago where I started with fully charged batteries. I trolled for 8 hours between 2 and 5 setting on the Terrova and still have 75% charge left.
Thanks for the response! That's what I suspected, but the Tracker literature leaves a bit to be desired in terms of detail.
Thanks for the input - those are excellent points. To your point, the 140Ah lithium battery I have ordered has bluetooth so I should have ready access to the battery charge level. The stock NOCO genius GEN 5X2 charger has individual cables and controls for the starting and trolling motor batteries and has lithium charging capabilities.
Id be leary about hooking an alternater off motor to a lithium battery. Unless there is something im missing.
The right charger and keeping TM batteries separated is always best.
I agree, lithium is the way to go, i take 3 day trips, do not charge them the whole time and im pretty hard on the TM.
(Dakota batteries /Garmin Force)
The right charger and keeping TM batteries separated is always best.
I agree, lithium is the way to go, i take 3 day trips, do not charge them the whole time and im pretty hard on the TM.
(Dakota batteries /Garmin Force)
As far as I can determine, no outboard charging systems are equipped to deal with the demands of lithium battery charging. In fact, your alternator components can be destroyed by directly charging a lithium battery with your engines charging system. A 140AH lithium battery will place a very high demand on the engine charging system not designed for lithium charge capability.
Also, your lithium battery should not be maintained at a 100% charge in regular use. With a 140ah you won't have to charge it often. It is generally recommended that you keep a charge of between 80 and 20 percent. You will have to adjust your habit of charging to 100% after each outing. You can probably make 3 or 4 trips and charge maybe one time to maintain- use a lithium rated charger only.
There are a lot of good, informative videos on you tube to guide you. I was not aware of all the differences with the use of lithium batteries. I recently converted my troll motor to lithium- 24V Ultrex. Best improvement I've made in a long time. Price has dropped significantly this past year.. No reason to stay with the heavy weight batteries...
Very informative! Thanks for sharing....
I have gone with Lithium batteries for my trolling motor and was considering going Lithium for my main starting and house batteries when the current lead/acid batteries die. Lithium starting batteries are readily available so I am therefore curious about your comment: "As far as I can determine, no outboard charging systems are equipped to deal with the demands of lithium battery charging." I don't want to find out after the fact that the charging system on my Optimax is not compatible with a Lithium starting battery.
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