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Cabela's/bass pro tracker battery question?

1773 Views 45 Replies 11 Participants Last post by  NoLuck, 
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Does anyone run the tracker lithium batteries that Cabela's/basspro have? Thinking of upgrading the boat and want some thoughts and opinions. The only reason I'm even considering them is I have a 1000 dollar gift card to burn and it'll get me half of what I need/want.

Thanks for the info. Rrman
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Dafish said:
I'm no help
Last week I "looked" at buying 2 TLI-100 Lithium plus a new charger. My charger is only for wet/gel/agm batteries

I'm an old tightwad so instead of buying 2 of the TLI-100 lithium batteries that weigh 30lbs each I bought the 31 AGM batteries that weigh 65lbs each(I weighed them) from Sam's. Then I re-located them to the other side of the boat so the boat would not have "the lean"
On my boat they made it so the wiring run is on the drivers side, the 2 starting batteries are on the drivers side along with the trolling motor batteries in the front. Plus me
Which some red-neck engineering and a hole saw I was able to move the front heavy batteries to the passenger side .
It road pretty level today on the river, for once...
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I'm kinda in the same boat the battery set up I want would be about 2000 dollars and dollar for dollar it's about the same just a lot up front. Honestly I'll probably go the agm's and just be happy. Momma let me buy the new boat and want to upgrade batteries, it came with interstate 27s for free but wanted to charge me 300 a piece to upgrade to 31s I said I'll do it myself at that price.

Just curious why do you have 2 starting batteries?

How was the fishing? I'm itching to get back out but the weekend temps might keep me home. 35 for a day time temp doesn't sound fun right now
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Dafish said:
I was in a rush and probably should have bought the lithium's. lighter weight and
will last 2 to 3 times more charges\cry once

2 starter batteries, I bought this from a guy who fished lake Michigan and it is a big lake for a battery to go bad.
as they can go bad at any time,plus it is used for livewell lights radio and fish finder.
It has a battery switch 1 or 2 and off switch, I turn it to off when done fishing,
funny story, a friend bought a center console, they were floating down the river listening to some tunes and drinking, went to start the boat and the battery was dead. They called the place they bought it from and asked where the aux battery switch was....:)

since Sam and I went out I have been out twice and caught 2 fish water temps was 38
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That's very true on the batteries you never know when they decide to die, I need to upgrade that one as well, very surprised they only put a group 24 for a starter on a 150 motor, it's got the cranking amps but I don't trust it to start to many times.

We've only been 3 times this year seems like something always comes up and throw work in the mix and there just isn't much time. First time was awesome caught 5 including personal best for the boat of 52 then the other 2 times we couldn't even buy a bite.

The wife did have a FB post she made last year when we caught our first "winter" cat and refecting back I feel we did very well for the first year of winging it but there is always more to learn. We hired a guide for a May trip on the river to do some more learning, different techniques/baits/ structure it'll be an experience learning trip that I hope will pay off in the future.
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PoisonSnake said:
I went with lithiums a couple of years back. With an 11 year warranty, I figured I may as well give it a shot. I think mine are BattleBorn out of Nevada. I'm glad I made the switch for sure. I didn't entertain the Tracker product due to the warranty. They may have since changed it. As I understand it, shipping lithium batteries can be a pain. So, that 11 year warranty may not be as attractive as simply being able to exchange a battery at the local Bass Pro/Cabelas.
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I think the trackers had only 5yrs which is a huge downfall for me but the whole reason I'm even entertaining them is because of the gift card I have, I agree and exchange would be much easier since I have both bass pro and cabela within an hour of me so if I ever had problems I wouldnt be stuck without for who knows how long
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421sd said:
I bought a 2016 Tracker right after Christmas, and it still had the original Interstate batteries! I pulled the Interstate 31 deep cycle off my Jon boat for the troller (2 years old) and bought an Interstate 27 dual purpose for the motor (30hp) and accessories (boat functions, 2 Garmins, and a BT radio). A marine tech buddy recommended this setup to me, we’ll see how it all functions this year. I had never even heard of a dual purpose battery before. So far so good.
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I wasn't to impressed with my last set of interstates I had, I had 2 group 31s in the 12 volt system and only got 2 1/2 years out of them, they did get used hard but the best batteries Ive had so far longevity wise has been the orschlen brand they carry
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seth_turner_04 said:
I bought a pair of 100AH Ampere Time lithiums last summer for $740. I believe they can now be had for $650. Anyways, I have used them hard since then and they are amazing. It’s like having an extra set of my old batteries on hand. I will fish hard for several
days and still have full power on the troller.

For what it cost me for the 29dc Everstarts from Walmart, I only need them to last 6 years to be a wash on cost. That doesn’t take in to account the performance and weight savings benefits. As for a charger, I just grabbed a cheapy with a LifePO4 setting off Amazon that will do 24v at 10amps. Works great so far.

If you can get by with 50AH, the cost is a lot less as well as the break even point. A 50ah has similar runtime to a 27 series lead acid battery.

The only pitfall is that you can’t charge them below freezing temps. They have a heated model, but it was a couple hundred more per battery. They are light so pulling them and bringing them inside to charge isn’t a big deal if need be. If you don’t fish during the winter time then it really doesn’t matter anyways.
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My boat stays in the garage all year but it not uncommon for me to be on a body of water when the air temp is in the teens. Going by some of your post you are out all winter have you had a performance issues with extreme cold?
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@seth_turner_04 just curious how big of trolling motor do you run I found where it says support's up to 70lb trolling motors and I have an 80 I'm guessing it wouldn't make a difference but I'm curious if it would even matter. You can't beat the price of them that's for sure!
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Great info @seth_turner_04 seems like we all are learning something
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@Dafish it's a ranger rt198p with a Merc 150 decided to go the aluminum route

Huge upgrade from what I had, main selling point was the amount of room this thing has, still a bass boat but the decks are monstrous compared to what I had. 3 adults in the old boat we were cramped so we took care of it. And it fits in the garage!!!!

Only have had it in the water for 3.5hrs to start breaking it in weather hasn't been nice since then. That's the best I have for pics, lost half the decals on that trip but it's an easy fix just waiting in line so I can get them put back on. Bad sticker or something and once the water grabbed it was all over.
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I went ahead and went to Cabela's and bought 2 of the tracker 100ah lithiums pricey invest that I hope will pay off big in the long run. Waiting on battery trays now to show up they only had one in stock so had to order.
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421sd said:
Per my post above, my Group 31 Interstate shot craps on me at 2 years. I wonder if they are doing something cheaper in the manufacturing now. They used to make very good batteries.
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Something is going on with the interstates it seems like. Those lithiums aren't cheap I hope they were worth the investment only time will tell. I bought 2 of those same batteries, for what they cost I hope to get at least 10 solids years out of them
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Dafish said:
That (new Charger) was part of the equation when I was in the market for new batteries, In which, in hind sight, I should have just spent the money and bought the Lithiums and new charger. But I had people coming to go fishing and needed something right then and rushed the decision.
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I went with the noco 3 bank charger and each charging port you can select the battery you are charging lead acid, agm, or lithium. Seems to be a nice charger, I get to test the new batteries tonight as the walleyes are starting to move up gotta see if I can screw up and find a couple
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