Originally Posted by John Jackson
Good advice!......have seen water cooled voltage regulated alternator failures when they attempted to charge 2 large capacity parallelled AGMs. Summer Lake temps surely play a factor as well as do low resistance batteries such as AGMs and Lithium Ions. The voltage reg failures costs the owner well over $1000.
Last edited by Lou r Pitcher; 07-13-2020 at 06:41 PM.
Alright, I tried the AGM/Lithium setup and was really surprised. I got a set of 2ga cables and connected my lithium to my AGM cranking battery, spent 8hrs on the water with radio on, 2 HDS-12 Lives, a Live 16 upfront along with my Garmin 1242 and livescope. I used my power poles a few times but not much. I done a lot of scanning, fished a decent bit but spent most of my time graphing and listening to the radio. When I loaded up for the day I checked my Ionic app to see how much was left on the lithium and it was at 97% and 13.3V. It started the day at 100% and 13.3V so with the running around and idling I done it kept the lithium up all day.
I have disconnected my sort cables between the two so I could charge the cranking battery when I was charging the trollers. I do not have a way to see how much was still left in the cranking battery before I charged it but I would make a good assumption that it was still 90-95% for sure if not more. I didn’t watch the charger to see how fast it showed it state before coming in for the night. I have a tournament this coming weekend which will be 7-8hrs long and hopefully we will be using the livewells also so I will check the lithium app again when we finish and see what it shows after a real tourney day. By the looks of it so far it seems as I won’t even need to charge the lithium at home before a lake day.
Sleepy, thanks for the update. I went back and skimmed the article again and it kind of reads like you’d be able to charge as normal while hooked together???
It would probably be fine leaving them connected and charge both at the same time. I read it the same way but just wanted to be safe and make sure on the first test run that it worked fine before trying to charge both with one charge lead. My boat has a MK460PC onboard and that charger works well to charge lithium’s on the AGM setting which it is already on for the cranking battery.
Great report. I've been finding the same thing with my lithium only setup. If I were running a dedicated starting battery I'd definitely be doing this, but I ditched my heavy AGM and will wait until my regulator and alternator burn out before changing again. I don't know that you even needed to charge the starting battery. I'd bet the Ionic/alternator combo kept it full. About all you could do is remove the cables and let the AGM battery stand for a couple hours then test voltage.
Stil looking at DC charge options to transfer to the trolling batteries and possibly from the truck as well.
2018 Ranger 1880 MS
200 Verado L4
Solix 12 SI G1
XNT 14 HWT dual spectrum 2D on Y cable
Ulterra 112 Ipilot Link
AS GPS HS
Ionic lithium batteries 3)100 1)125 installed 6/20
MK460PC on board charger
Stealth 1 DC lithium so-so about 6 amps per battery
I fished a club tourney this past Saturday but it was only 6hrs long. Started the day with the ionic at 97%, all elec’s on, livewells running, radio on, poles were being used and when I loaded it on the trailer the ionic was still at 92%. Connecting the lithium with the AGM is the ticket and I’m liking it. After 2 trips out with it connected up I haven’t even needed to charge the ionic and by the looks of it I don’t think I will have t for a while besides to just top it off every little bit.
2018 Ranger 1880 MS
200 Verado L4
Solix 12 SI G1
XNT 14 HWT dual spectrum 2D on Y cable
Ulterra 112 Ipilot Link
AS GPS HS
Ionic lithium batteries 3)100 1)125 installed 6/20
MK460PC on board charger
Stealth 1 DC lithium so-so about 6 amps per battery
Thank you for the update. Is your AGM staying fully charged?
I fished a 3-1/2 hour tourney Tuesday night and pulled my X2 100 amp AGM down to about 60%. So I clearly need to do something since upgrading/adding electronics, I just haven’t decided which direction to go.
I believe it is staying pretty charged, I haven’t put a meter on it after getting home from a trip yet but I can tell you my MK charger tops the AGM back off in less than an hour when I plug it up. Do you have room to add a lithium just for your electronics? I would suggest the ionic 125 or maybe the 100 depending what all you are running.
Are you still running the combiner with the li battery? Are you using the Li specific combiner or the standard yandina combiner?
Good question. Poster is still active. Hope he responds.
The Combiner 200 and the Trollbridge come in 2 models, lead-acid and lithium.
The lead-acid version is not compatible with any lithium batteries but the lithiium version will work with lead-acid only, lithium only, or a mix, typically lead-acid starting and lithium trolling battery(ies).
The only downside if you use the lithium version on only lead-acid is the time to charge increases by about 5%.
Just to be clear Ann-Marie, I can use the lithium 12x24 troll bridge for my lead acid starter and 2 lead acid trolling batteries? If so great because I plan on replacing my trolling batteries with lithium in the future and want to buy just one trollbrdige 12x24. Is the 5% loss because of the extra resistance of the 12x24 lithium trollbridge?
I'm confused by all I read with Lithium, AGM, Flooded lead acid combinations, what works what doesn't and why but here is my experience.
I ran the grp 31 Northstar with a lithium Yandina combiner 100 and a 60amp Amped outdoors lithium battery for electronics until the Northstar finally crapped out. This combo worked great for a long time. Then I ran the Ionic 125 Dual Purpose battery with my 60 amp Amped Outdoors battery. Also worked great. Now I run the Ionic 125 heated Dual purpose and 125 Ionic dual Purpose for electronics. All the combos have worked great to start my Yamaha SHO 200 and run a Lowrance 16 Live, 2 12 in Simrad evo3s, Active Target 1, and live wells when I have fish or bait. Today, I ran this combos for about 6 hrs. The starting battery is 99% and the electronics battery is 89%. I never worry about not starting or runnning electronics or live wells any longer. 2 60 amp Amped outdoors batteries for the trolling motor. I'll use them again without charging. Have never had an issue period........ Maybe next time I go out. LOL.
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