I really needed a better power solution
I run a Quintrex 530 Frontier with a 115HP Suzuki and dual Raymarine Element 12” sounders. I also run a 54Lb Minn Kota riptide Terova bow mounted trolling motor.
Having fished a number of barra tournaments in the northern territory I had the issue of not being able to leave my boat in the water over night. As reliance on the electric motor during the 5 days of tournament, pre-fish and practice meant retrieving the boat after every day. Sitting in the waiting line every day to retrieve the boat with 45 other boats to plug the charger on the Minn kota battery to ensure we had power for the next day was time consuming and to be honest very frustrating. I also found that the current of the river in high flow made my Minn kota run at high speed just to hold spot lock. It was a losing battle some times losing the spot lock and having to power up and get back on the spot, which spooks the fish. Less than ideal.
I spoke with Eddy from Marine Rv Electronics based at Horizon Shores Marina Woongoolba about coming up with a solution. Main key point was to keep the weight down as the front of the Frontier with 3 big guys on the casting deck makes the boat sit down at the front so Lithium was an absolute requirement. We went with a Fusion lithium Pulse 100ah battery to power the Minn Kota. I also wanted to be able to monitor the battery output, charge condition, charging rate and time to go so a Victron BMV700 battery monitor was fitted to my dash. This is a very simple to use display and at a fingertip I am able to scroll through the display to find out what is going on at all times with my lithium system. What I found handy was the extra time that the motor could run given the current load of the motor!!. What was even better, was that whenever I moved to new areas running the outboard connected to the lithium via a VSR module ensured my cranking/sounder battery was full before sending the charge to the front lithium battery. I can literally watch the battery meter climb even at idle and I found that even fishing hard and running spot lock in high current areas including some trolling on the electric, that I never got the battery down below 60% over the whole event. Each afternoon a run back to the event saw the lithium always restored to 100% ready for the next day. The system for peace of mind is protected from fallback to the cracking battery by a Victron Argodiode.
I also added a Victron IP65 smart battery charger mounted under the deck with a 240V shore power plug in case I do need to connect to shore charge. The fit out was done to a very high standard and the system performed beyond my expectations for my needs. I strongly recommend talking to Eddy to customise a power system that meets your needs and experience the hassle free and high performance of Fusion Lithium batteries and high quality Victron components and display used in the system. Definitely the best improvement I have made to my boat and I’m looking forward to many years of reliability in high pressure tournament fishing situations.
Kind Regards
Mark Singleton
Marine Rv Electronics
2021-07-07T03:34:08+00:00
https://marinervelectronics.com.au/?testimonial=i-really-needed-a-better-power-solution