Trolling Motor Distance Test with Enjoybot LiFePO4 Lithium Batteries 

Trolling motor can be found on Amazon: amzn.to/3GA5UTz

I bought a Newport 46 pound motor and a 50ah lipo4 battery this year. I haven’t run it out of juice yet, and that 46 pound thrust is powerful.

Never heard of a gas trolling motor 😂😂

LOL! The seadoo switch is the silliest looking boat out here and I'm in this thing! That's saying a lot!

interresting video. now I know you have alot of patience.

You’re such a smart guy! Ryan’s auntie Pat loves how your mind works!

4 hours on full speed constant is a great range for a trolling motor. FYI, typically trolling motors that have an on-board battery gauge are reading voltage ranges expected from a lead acid battery. Lead acid are approximately 12.7v (charged) to 12v (discharged). 12v Lithium batteries will have a voltage range that is higher, more typically 13.4v (charged) to 13.0v (discharged). Because of this, the gauge is likely to read 100% full no matter the level of charge in the lithiums (unless they are super dead). Its best to get a cheap digital voltmeter and make harness across the battery leads to monitor the voltage. This is also the reason that lead acid chargers dont work on lithium batteries.

Amped Outdoors smart battery monitor. It connects via bluetooth to their smartphone app. I use one on my lifepo4 batteries. Its pretty slick, tells you how many watts/amps are being used or added while charging and also the percentage of capacity remaining.

They do make starter LiFePo4 batteries also, they work very well but the key is the motor's alternator needs to be compatible. My 2015 115hp Merc 4 Stroke worked fine, however 2021 Suzuki DF90 is a no go. The BMS inside the batteries shut off the batteries charging capability when full abruptly and that can really mess with an alternator.

I guess that one of the issues with an electric trolling motor is the extent that the output power varies with the state of charge of the battery. Typical output into the motor at full charge being double that from a close to discharged battery. One way to get a constant output power would be to use a boost converter that takes 12V (1.e. 10V to 14.6V) input to give 24V output. This brings some loss of efficiency but that might be acceptable.

The motor will draw what amps it needs to run based on voltage. At a certain voltage, the motor will draw a specific current. If the voltage stays the same, so will the amps. The good, and bad, thing about LiFePo batteries is that they will supply close to full voltage and current, until they don't. When they start to go dead, power drops off a cliff in a hurry. Where a lead acid battery will start to drop voltage fairly slowly, lithium batteries don't. I have had to limp a dead lead acid battery to shore, and was able to make it. With a lithium, I would have likely needed to row.

To my understanding the amp draw should be the same throughout the charge cycle on Lithium batteries. Or at least LifePo from what I've seen. The other caveat is that most people using a trolling motor are either going to be using it for fishing (GPS SPOT LOCK) so current doesn't matter because you're using it mostly to sit on a spot without needing to anchor. The other use would be for kayak applications. Again, generally for fishing. Now, if you're using the battery for propulsion obviously current, wind, body of water is going to factor into the life of the battery but from everything I've read and seen these batteries can power trolling motors and kayak thrusters (jet or prop) for hours, possibly multiple days on end without needing recharged. And again, you're supposed to get the same amp output at 40% as you do at 100%. Supposively. Check out TORQEEDO and NEWPORT VESSELS electric trolling/propulsion motors.

So many thoughts and questions! Were you running the troller at top speed the whole time? Usually it seems the batteries drop really fast at the end. How tall is your bimini? I will be getting one for my 14 foot aluminum boat soon. One of the 3 hp electrics should do better in that area where the trolling motor was barely pushing you. If only we lived 2,300 miles closer to each other...

Switches do look super goofy. I saw one stuff hard into a 2 foot wave in Milwaukee. I also can't imagine having to use jet ski controls all the time on a boat.

10x longer reserve time. I use em for all my dirtbikes etc. They are 90% lighter and you can tell when u crank it how good they are. And on a motorcycle they cut down a lot of weight, high up on the chasis. Plus u can install them in any direction . Upside down if u want. I just cant justify the price for a car size 1. Insane pricing. On my batt load tester its supposed to be 120cca and mine says 140. The problem is our alternators dont put out enough volts a 12v lithium full charge is 13.4 and most come close. But thats why u need a noco genuis 1 throw it on there once in awhile. To get to 14.4 instead on lead acid 12.4 only charge to 12.8. Amazing units tho they last forever. Just not for cold climates they run down almost 2x as fast when its below 0 Celsius. Hey im canadian. Also for the atv batts etc the price is same or 20 bux more than a high end lead acid. 100 bux canadian pesos for moto ,atv ,sxs etc. I guess their somewhat close in car area if your buying those shitty new optimas that are garbage they were excellent before they sold out. Now they suck and the price doesnt reflect that. Id go lithium or high end lead instead of optima everyday of the week

I have a NewTipower 150ah battery, a minn kota enduramax 55 (12v) and I run the APC 10X5m-LH prop, my top speed is 4.3 and I draw about 27 amps. With those numbers I know my time at max speed would be 5.5 hours, however I can do 3.5 mph drawing 10 amps, which gives me 15 hours on the water, that is if my battery would provide the amps it's rated for.

Clicked "Like" at "this may not be the best video". The voltage stays relatively flat throughout the charge/discharge curve of an LFP battery, so your typical 5-light volt-meter gauge isn't going to tell you much, except full and empty. The specs on that (very low quality) trolling motor show max draw of 30 amps @ 24v, or around 750 watts. Once your boat is moving, that probably drops to no more than 25 amps, or around 650 watts. When you put two 12.8v, 100AH batteries in series, you get 100AH @ 25.6v, or 2,560 watt-hours. If you were to draw 650 watts, continuously, you would get nearly 4 hours of runtime from that electric motor. #Math

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That's a very decent runtime. 100Ah acid battery lasts with my old 12V 55lbs motor in full speed about 1h 30min