Yamaha FSH 210 36V Lithium Trolling Motor Battery Runtime

[daaaddy27]

What are you guys getting for run time on your 36V trolling motors in the 210? I bought a Dakota Lithium 36V 63Ah Lithium battery for my trolling motor. Running it at 2 mph with the wind my battery usually goes dead anywhere from 3-5 hours in. Yesterday the lake was glass, I trolled for ~1 hour, spot locked for ~1 hour and then almost got another hour of trolling before it died.

This battery shouldn't be dying this fast, that much I know, but can anyone help me figure out a possible reason? I'm already contacting Dakota Lithium about the battery or charger being defective, but I was wondering if there was anything else I can check? Thanks.

 

[Dumbassbass]

What are you guys getting for run time on your 36V trolling motors in the 210? I bought a Dakota Lithium 36V 63Ah Lithium battery for my trolling motor. Running it at 2 mph with the wind my battery usually goes dead anywhere from 3-5 hours in. Yesterday the lake was glass, I trolled for ~1 hour, spot locked for ~1 hour and then almost got another hour of trolling before it died.

This battery shouldn't be dying this fast, that much I know, but can anyone help me figure out a possible reason? I'm already contacting Dakota Lithium about the battery or charger being defective, but I was wondering if there was anything else I can check? Thanks.
I have 3=2yr old Dakota 12vdc 54ah in series and consistently get 5-7+ hrs in medium chop seas both trolling and spot locked, I think I've only run them dead 2x. Is this your 1st season on that battery or did it get stored over winter? Have you called Dakota for support?

 

[JASmith]

That does seem awful short. Currently I only have 2x 100AH AGM's on my Garmin Force and it holds spot lock for 8~ hours at least, that's the longest we've pushed it, but we're running at 24v (currently) and it's the Force which has brushless motors and is a bit more efficient than others at the same voltages. With what I hear about lithium you should have more effective AH than I do, and then some with 36v being more efficient at carrying the load... So I think you are on to something being off for sure.

What motor? Is the cabling all solid and tightly connected? What gauge wire, and what are the length of runs/location of batteries?

 

[daaaddy27]

Lowrance Ghost, also brushless. As far as I can tell all the cabling is good. The first charge I got like 10-12 hours of trolling over two days. Wanted to run it dry to see how long it would last. The next time out it was 5 hours, then 4, and then on Sunday 3 hours...and really only 2 hours of light trolling.
I'm just hoping like heck it's a bad charger or something. Hopefully nothing is off w/ the Ghost or Battery.

 

[JASmith]

Yeah, the Ghost is the only other brushless on the market, that should be crazy efficient. Do you have a battery monitor on the Dakota? I assume you have their 36v charger? Something like that might be helpful, since you can't use a multimeter with Lithium like we can with lead acid/agm to detect charge levels. I'd lean towards charging being the issue, but it could be bad cells or something internal to the battery. Thats super-fast degradation for sure.

My dealer initially installed my Force with 8-gauge wire, when it actually requires 6-gauge, so I ended up changing that out afterwards. I can't imagine that would have much effect with the motor running as slowly as it should be there, but Garmin insisted it needed to be 6-gauge. I'm not sure about the Ghost, but could be similar requirements.

 

[daaaddy27]

Yeah, the Ghost is the only other brushless on the market, that should be crazy efficient. Do you have a battery monitor on the Dakota? I assume you have their 36v charger? Something like that might be helpful, since you can't use a multimeter with Lithium like we can with lead acid/agm to detect charge levels. I'd lean towards charging being the issue, but it could be bad cells or something internal to the battery. Thats super-fast degradation for sure.

My dealer initially installed my Force with 8-gauge wire, when it actually requires 6-gauge, so I ended up changing that out afterwards. I can't imagine that would have much effect with the motor running as slowly as it should be there, but Garmin insisted it needed to be 6-gauge. I'm not sure about the Ghost, but could be similar requirements.

I know! I went with lithium because it's supposed to last the longest. When the motor died after 5 hours I was like "OK maybe this is just a fluke" but then next time out it died after 4 hours. Talk about bummer when you're geeked to go out for a day of fishing and it's cut short.

No battery monitor on the Dakota. I have their 8 amp charger, which should charge the 63Ah battery in <8 hours.

The manual recommends 8 gauge wire over the distance I'm running the cable. I think over 25' of cable and it recommends 6 gauge.

Last night I ordered all new cables, and a new receptacle and circuit breaker. Going to re-install everything and see if that fixes it? I read it's possible there's a short somewhere but I feel like it's pretty hard to screw up the wiring install on a trolling motor... red to red, black to black, done.

 

[JASmith]

I know! I went with lithium because it's supposed to last the longest. When the motor died after 5 hours I was like "OK maybe this is just a fluke" but then next time out it died after 4 hours. Talk about bummer when you're geeked to go out for a day of fishing and it's cut short.

No battery monitor on the Dakota. I have their 8 amp charger, which should charge the 63Ah battery in <8 hours.

The manual recommends 8 gauge wire over the distance I'm running the cable. I think over 25' of cable and it recommends 6 gauge.

Last night I ordered all new cables, and a new receptacle and circuit breaker. Going to re-install everything and see if that fixes it? I read it's possible there's a short somewhere but I feel like it's pretty hard to screw up the wiring install on a trolling motor... red to red, black to black, done.

No kidding, I just ordered 3 of the Power Queen 100AH Lithiums that should be here this week. It'll be nice to save 150 pounds onboard also!

Yeah really, that single battery should be about as straight forward as humanly possible to wire. I assume battery is located in the head area where everyone else puts them? that should be less than 20 feet even considering the motor power cable.

If you have a multimeter you can check the voltage coming off the charger. I know it should be putting off 14.4v consistently... that would be one easier thing to check.

 

[scokill]

What are you guys getting for run time on your 36V trolling motors in the 210? I bought a Dakota Lithium 36V 63Ah Lithium battery for my trolling motor. Running it at 2 mph with the wind my battery usually goes dead anywhere from 3-5 hours in. Yesterday the lake was glass, I trolled for ~1 hour, spot locked for ~1 hour and then almost got another hour of trolling before it died.

This battery shouldn't be dying this fast, that much I know, but can anyone help me figure out a possible reason? I'm already contacting Dakota Lithium about the battery or charger being defective, but I was wondering if there was anything else I can check? Thanks.

It seems the spec will dictate run time and not the technology. i.e., 100 AH is 100 AH.

 

[daaaddy27]

No kidding, I just ordered 3 of the Power Queen 100AH Lithiums that should be here this week. It'll be nice to save 150 pounds onboard also!

Yeah really, that single battery should be about as straight forward as humanly possible to wire. I assume battery is located in the head area where everyone else puts them? that should be less than 20 feet even considering the motor power cable.

If you have a multimeter you can check the voltage coming off the charger. I know it should be putting off 14.4v consistently... that would be one easier thing to check.

Yeah I think I'll check the charger tonight. That could be the culprit. The battery was still charging yesterday after being on the charger for 18 hours.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

More than likely it is a charger problem…

I highly recommend the victron energy smart shunt. I put one on my set up (3x 100ah battle born LiFePO) and it seems to work very well. Its a great way to keep track of how many ah’s / KWh’s you are using, and it shows the voltage of the battery bank. Super easy to install and you download an app and read all the info off your phone.

For reference, I ran my Ulterra at 1.8 mph in relatively windless conditions for 8 hours on one day, camped out on the boat over night, then ran the boat in some pretty windy conditions for 4-5 hours and used 79 amp hours / 3.1 KWh’s . Im highly impressed with these batteries and their run time. Today I ordered three Victron energy 25A chargers as I have been having intermittent issues with my MinnKota PC MK 330 charger.. 10A per battery.

 

[daaaddy27]

More than likely it is a charger problem…

I highly recommend the victron energy smart shunt. I put one on my set up (3x 100ah battle born LiFePO) and it seems to work very well. Its a great way to keep track of how many ah’s / KWh’s you are using, and it shows the voltage of the battery bank. Super easy to install and you download an app and read all the info off your phone.

For reference, I ran my Ulterra at 1.8 mph in relatively windless conditions for 8 hours on one day, camped out on the boat over night, then ran the boat in some pretty windy conditions for 4-5 hours and used 79 amp hours / 3.1 KWh’s . Im highly impressed with these batteries and their run time. Today I ordered three Victron energy 25A chargers as I have been having intermittent issues with my MinnKota PC MK 330 charger.. 10A per battery.

That's a great idea, I'll look into that. I would love to be able to keep track of the battery usage. I feel like you could quickly learn what drains the battery fast and figure out how to avoid it.

So when I went to check on the boat & battery today I noticed the charger lights were flickering. Apparently when that happens it likely means it's defective. I also dug up the packaging for the battery & charger and read that I'm not supposed to be charging the battery with an extension cord, or even on the boat. The charger needs to plug directly into a wall outlet which means I need to take the battery out each time I charge it.

I also highly regret buying a single 36V battery because I can't find any onboard chargers for 36V batteries. I wished I bought the 3-12Vs like you did and ran them in series.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

That's a great idea, I'll look into that. I would love to be able to keep track of the battery usage. I feel like you could quickly learn what drains the battery fast and figure out how to avoid it.

So when I went to check on the boat & battery today I noticed the charger lights were flickering. Apparently when that happens it likely means it's defective. I also dug up the packaging for the battery & charger and read that I'm not supposed to be charging the battery with an extension cord, or even on the boat. The charger needs to plug directly into a wall outlet which means I need to take the battery out each time I charge it.

I also highly regret buying a single 36V battery because I can't find any onboard chargers for 36V batteries. I wished I bought the 3-12Vs like you did and ran them in series.

I had thought about the single 36V battery as I was looking to decrease as much weight as I could, but I wanted the performance more than the weight savings.. I still dropped a fair amount of weight with the three 12’s. @Zeusmotorworks did a thread wherein he used a single 36V battery.. do a search using his screen name as part of the search and see what charger he is using. I know he has had very good results with his set up. @Zeusmotorworks can you help us out here?

Not charging the battery while its in the boat? No extension cord? That sounds like bs to me, not you, the charger. Just be sure you don’t use a pinner extension cord that is 200’ long. I have used one of those 16gauge lawn trimmer cords for a long time without issue. Your 8A charger doesn’t even pull 1A when its charging on the 120VAC side… (8A x 14.4V=115.2watts / 120vac =.96A) You could make sure that you have at least 110 VAC at the end of your extension cord, just to be sure you do not have a problem there.

The Dakota lithium chargers are not IP67 Rated so you are not supposed to use it in a “wet” atmosphere. You should be fine as long as the charger is not getting sprayed with water or is in a super humid atmosphere. Just get a hold of Dakota lithium and let them know what is going on, and they should replace the charger and or the battery if that is the case. If your battery is bad, then you could just upgrade from there on the warranty return to 3 100ah batteries. But, judging from what you said about flickering lights on the charger its probably the charger itself. I don’t know where you are at time wise in the return for money back window with DL.. but if possible you could always return the DL battery and go with the Battle Born brand.

I’m sorry you are having drama’s with your lithium battery.. they are super expensive to say the least.

 

[daaaddy27]

At least Dakota Lithiums support is top notch. They said without multimeter readings they won’t know if the battery is defective, but they are sending me a new charger to test that first. If I still have issues they asked that I obtain a multimeter and if it shows the battery is bad they will send me a new one.

 

[JASmith]

I find having a multimeter super handy. I've had this one for probably 10 years. works great, and inexpensive.

https://www.amazon.com/Multimeter-Manual-Ranging-Klein-Tools-MM300/dp/B018O18VUW/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=klein+multimeter&qid=1656530427&sprefix=klein+multi%2Caps%2C108&sr=8-8

 

[daaaddy27]

Thanks I'll grab one!

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

At least Dakota Lithiums support is top notch. They said without multimeter readings they won’t know if the battery is defective, but they are sending me a new charger to test that first. If I still have issues they asked that I obtain a multimeter and if it shows the battery is bad they will send me a new one.

Did DL have input about you charging the battery on the boat without having to pull it out each time?

 

[JASmith]

Did DL have input about you charging the battery on the boat without having to pull it out each time?

I'm very confident that is only because their charger is not water resistant. Minnkota or NoCo both have chargers that are though. Currently I have the Minnkota (MK460PC) 4 bank and it's charging up my new lithium's right now in AGM mode. If I could get a hold of their new 5 bank charger that has a lithium profile (MK550PCL) I'd be all over that, but supply chain is a huge issue of course. They make really good chargers.

 

[Frank Marshall]

I had 3 - 12v 100 ah batteries, and found I wasn't getting enough trolling time. I purchased a Balmar SG200 battery monitor, and found many times amperage rates were pushing the upper teens.
In your case 63ah/18 amps = 3.5 hrs
I have since switched batteries to 3 - SOK 206 ah lithium batteries, and have plenty of trolling time now.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

I had 3 - 12v 100 ah batteries, and found I wasn't getting enough trolling time. I purchased a Balmar SG200 battery monitor, and found many times amperage rates were pushing the upper teens.
In your case 63ah/18 amps = 3.5 hrs
I have since switched batteries to 3 - SOK 206 ah lithium batteries, and have plenty of trolling time now.

Dang! I hope to shout! That is 7.8KWh’s of energy in those batteries!!! That’s like 40 miles of range on your trolling motor!

 

[NateKurtz]

I have the Dakota 36v 63AH single battery and just got to use it last weekend. I spot locked for about 4 hours and trolled for 1 hour and the ipilot link controller was showing full battery for the Dakota. Not sure if it was accurate or not, but when I got home, it only took 45 mins to fully charge with the included 8ah charger from Dakota.