Pro Angler Duane Hjelm Secures Victory at the NWT on Lake Sakakawea Powered by Dakota Lithium
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Putting new Dakota Lithium Batteries inside your bass boat is as easy as just replacing the old batteries and putting in your new lithium batteries inside. The only trick is making sure that you have a lithium battery charger. Otherwise, installing your batteries is pretty seamless and shouldn’t take any longer than 10 or 15 minutes. Also, it’s super convenient Dakota Lithium sends you all the hardware you will need to install when you buy a battery. You won’t need anything other than a few wrenches to tighten the bolts. In this example there are three (3) batteries to install plus an onboard charger.
Installing 12V 100Ah Dakota Lithium Batteries in a Bass Boat
This step can be totally skipped if you already have a lithium battery charger on board of your boat. But in my case we will need to install a battery charger. Depending on where you want to install it you will only need a couple of things. A drill and four (4) 13/32 head bolts and nuts to mount it. You can use screws depending where you are putting it, but would recommend bolting. The onboard charger has mounting slots on the side of it in different locations that make it easy to install.
Once installed where you would like it close to the batteries, you just need to plug in the ring connectors to the wires already installed in the charger. The separate ring connector is a super awesome feature Dakota Lithium provides, so if something happens to the ring connector you can just easily buy another one and plug it right back in. We’ll hold off on plugging the ring connectors up to the batteries until we get those installed.
You could easily say that pulling your old lead or AGM trolling motor batteries from your boat would be the hardest part of step two. But no worries as the new lithium batteries are very easy to put back in as the Dakota Lithium 12V 100AH Deep Cycle Trolling Motor Battery only weighs in at 31.9 pounds compared to most lead or AGM batteries weighing in at over 70 pounds.
2 – 12V 100Ah Dakota Lithium Batteries in Series
Once inside the boat it’s just simply wiring them back the correct way and adding your charging wires to the batteries.
Rinse and repeat from step two. The 12V 135AH battery weighs-in at 27.2 pounds. Only thing you might want to consider with the new cranking battery is the width. It is smaller than most AGM and lead batteries, so you might consider another battery tray just for it which you can find here.
Dakota Lithium 12V 135Ah Cranking Battery
It’s important to note that if are starting up your boat a lot through the day and using power from this battery to power fish finders and accessories and others you might need to consider a Victron Orion-TR Smart 12/12-18A Isolated DC-DC Charger to charge your battery while the motor is running. This will keep your lithium battery charged and flowing all day long.