metalchewy
Seaman Apprentice
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2025
- Messages
- 30
Thought I would share the battery setup I've put together for trolling with my canoe. 16' Pelican with a 30LB minn kota endura.
When I first bought it, I had an 100A deep cycle AGM. About 75lbs. Worked fine. Concerned me that it wasn't breaker or fuse protected and was spark every time I hooked up the negative. Having had an electrical burn before, it would make me jump every time.
A little over a year ago, I converted my old ezgo medalist to LiFePo. The first battery they sent, wouldn't work , got a replacement.
They told me I could troubleshoot the first one and if I could make it work, could keep it rather than them incurring the cost to ship it back. 36V 200AH. I ended up cutting the top off of it and found the BMS wasn't connected to one side, plugged it in, at which point I had 2 batteries for the golf cart, equating to about 16 hours continuous use with both batteries installed. Not really needed for that many hours.
So I took the second battery last winter and proceeded to setup a battery box for the canoe.
Got a 50A transformer to drop the voltage to 12.4V. Then added a 50A breaker on the battery. A 50A breaker on the trolling motor side of the transformer, and later a 10A breaker on the fish finder side of the 12V output on the transformer. No more dealing with a live wire.
Added 50A plugs to the battery box cables, the trolling motor and 2 plugs to the transom mount I made for the canoe through distribution blocks.
The battery box (cooler) weighs 73 lbs, so not much different than the old AGM. Can troll for 4 hours and use 15% of the battery capacity. Have had it out over a dozen times and never had to worry about running out of juice, even if we troll all day or all night. One day we trolled for 15 hours and barely got below 40%.
When I first bought it, I had an 100A deep cycle AGM. About 75lbs. Worked fine. Concerned me that it wasn't breaker or fuse protected and was spark every time I hooked up the negative. Having had an electrical burn before, it would make me jump every time.
A little over a year ago, I converted my old ezgo medalist to LiFePo. The first battery they sent, wouldn't work , got a replacement.
They told me I could troubleshoot the first one and if I could make it work, could keep it rather than them incurring the cost to ship it back. 36V 200AH. I ended up cutting the top off of it and found the BMS wasn't connected to one side, plugged it in, at which point I had 2 batteries for the golf cart, equating to about 16 hours continuous use with both batteries installed. Not really needed for that many hours.
So I took the second battery last winter and proceeded to setup a battery box for the canoe.
Got a 50A transformer to drop the voltage to 12.4V. Then added a 50A breaker on the battery. A 50A breaker on the trolling motor side of the transformer, and later a 10A breaker on the fish finder side of the 12V output on the transformer. No more dealing with a live wire.
Added 50A plugs to the battery box cables, the trolling motor and 2 plugs to the transom mount I made for the canoe through distribution blocks.
The battery box (cooler) weighs 73 lbs, so not much different than the old AGM. Can troll for 4 hours and use 15% of the battery capacity. Have had it out over a dozen times and never had to worry about running out of juice, even if we troll all day or all night. One day we trolled for 15 hours and barely got below 40%.