Doug I bought this one on Amazon last year it was over $400.00. Lithium batteries have come way down, the exact same battery in now about $325.00. It has the BMS system and comes with it's own charger. The light weight, long life, and 5 year warranty were all factors in my decision. In my book the advantages outweigh the risk.
I was starting to find it hard to lug my lead acid battery around. I love my argo but it's not quite as efficient as a boat so with the lead acid battery i could only troll for about 4 hours. I decided it was time to invest in one of these. What a huge difference in so many good ways. No worries about off gas when charging. I can pick this thing up with one hand and lift it in and out of the argo easily. I am not sure how long I can troll with it on the Argo but I have run it for over 7 hours at a time including wide open down the lake and back about 1/2 an hour each way with a 55lb thrust trolling motor. No issues at all.
Only thing I would do differently is I would spend the extra to get one with the Bluetooth capability. Guess what I'm getting my son for his birthday this spring😊
Well I finally booked the trip so now I know what we can mange. They have a generator so i'll be brining the big unit. Found a BNIB Garmin 2d/structure scan transducer for $120 on marketplace.
Will upgrade to a lithium closer to the trip and feel better about the ability to locate fish in case the weather doesn't cooperate.
Now the fly in planning has begun.... can't wait for June.
Not far from you CrowMan,
The little trout lakes out that way have been frozen for a a few weeks now with over 6 inches of ice. Machines will be out on them now. Boy do those lakes ever get pounded with fishing pressure.
Bought into an ice shack this year on the Big River..... seems to be a bust so far!
Up here in central Frontenac, my lake finally froze over last week...then we got hit with 10" of heavy snow. Not good...now it's a slushy mess with a few inches of clear ice underneath that's very unpredictable. Would've been much better if we got the cold snap BEFORE the snow.
Probably going to give the smaller Trout lakes up by Plevna/Ompah a try in the coming days....the Crappie and Walleye will have to wait for now.
Good thing about this winter was that I was Steelhead fishing right up until Christmas.
Doug,
They were being discharged down to a lower voltage for winter storage. They are 6 cell batteries and the voltage on one cell was off from the others. When this happens that bad cell will overheat and catch fire.
Most power tools are low lithium batteries and they recommend not leaving the battery plugged in once full charged. Lithium is a great storage solution but quite volatile when overheated so people jut need to be aware and be careful.
I brought it up here just to bring awareness to others.