Any interest in a Lithium Battery group buy?

I’m running a FLx-28 with a dual USB charger I rigged to it. While that new Marcum lithium shuttle looks cool, I can’t justify $250 for one when I already have most the same features in my Vex. The thing I’m missing and have been considering (too cheap?) the past season or two is upgrading to a lithium 10AH pack for it to reduce weight and flatten the discharge rate.

Dakota Lithium are well reviewed/accepted replacement batteries. They want $99 + $15 shipping for one battery.

They offer bulk discount pricing.
If we can get to 20 buyers/batteries, battery price drops to $75.

Anyone interested?

Link to battery:
https://www.electric-bike-kit.com/12v-lithium-lifepo4-replacement.aspx?variation=477

List of those interested:
Jamin (x1)
Dustin Gesinger (x2)
Doug M (x2)
jstarvinmarvin (x2)
renny1 (x1)

Those interested from the other forum:
+4

Total Qty Interest:
12

Depends on the savings, where would they all be shipped to?

Go to the link he posted 10+ batteries $82ea

But You need to spend $40 on a charger to work with that type of battery.

Dusty Gesinger wrote:

Depends on the savings, where would they all be shipped to?

Well if I see some interest here on IDO, I’ll reach out to Dakota and see if they’ll offer us a break on drop shipping them directly to each individual.

If not, I would consider fronting the costs on my personal CC and shipping them all to my place and then take “gift” PayPal payments and ship them out USPS flat rate boxes or possible Speedy for those in the area as their rates are considerably cheaper.

I’m not looking to turn a profit anywhere. I’d just like to secure a LiPo battery in the $75-85 range. That’s kinda my cost tolerance on an upgrade like this.

Not to bash the members of IDO but that’s a decent risk for minimal savings.

I understand. I definitely don’t have the reputation around here many of you have. I only ice fish so I only hang around during and up to the ice season.

I’ve emailed Dakota/Clean Republic about running a group buy and drop shipping directly. I would agree that’s the preferred way to do it. Believe me, I don’t want $1000 worth of batteries on my CC I can’t get rid of.

I’ll let everyone know what our options are when I get a response.

Well, they were quick to respond and seem open to working with us.

“Hi Ben,
Thanks for reaching out to us! Yes, this is definitely something we can do. For an order like this you’ll need to place an order over the phone, but it’s definitely something we can do. Do you have a sense of where most of these people live? In order to calculate shipping costs we’ll need some rough idea of where they’ll all ultimately be going.”

I’m going to call the guy this afternoon and see if we could set up some kind of code word or reference number so each IDO member could call in and place their order.

I’ve been running this battery for 3 years now and its been great. Can handle minus 30 days and it is way lighter than my lead battery by far. I would suggest buying their charger too. You don’t want to over charge lithium batteries they will explode (I’m sure you all seen what happens to cell phone batteries when they pop).

Whytie – thanks for sharing your experience with these packs! I was talking to them and they said these could be charged with any quality charger used for SLA type batteries as it has some “load leveler” on it (can’t recall the exact term he used).

I asked if I could use my Noco or BatteryTender to charge it and I was told those would work fine.

I’ll double check tomorrow though when I discuss with the gentleman helping with the purchasing.

From their website:
Charge: 10 A max, 14.6 V max recommended. Compatible with most SLA chargers.

One more thing — I was told these would ship from their ND facility so that should help keep shipping costs down as well…at least for those of us in the upper midwest.

I might be interested in 2 if shipping to Minnetrista, MN isn’t too bad.

Dusty Gesinger wrote:

I might be interested in 2 if shipping to Minnetrista, MN isn’t too bad.

Sounds good. I’ll see if they can provide me a quote on 2 for you when I talk to them tomorrow. They wanted $15 for one on their site…I would hope they could ship 2 for that price from ND to Minnetrista.

Thanks a lot, hopefully there will be enough interest.

I have been looking at these also, so I might be interested. What I would like to know is will this increase my run time considerably over the sla 9ah battery I have in my lx9? If I run my camera for a good part of the day, my battery is fairly low by time sun goes down.

Hey Doug,
Lithiums in general hold their voltage longer than an SLA. I’m not battery engineer so pardon my ignorance, but check this graph out. You can see how the Lithium remains “flatter” while discharging providing a higher/sufficient voltage longer than a typical SLA battery. Basically, you get more usable voltage for a longer period of time than a comparable SLA battery.

Here’s Dakota’s product site:
https://www.dakotalithiumbattery.com/12-v-10-ah-lithium-battery

Hopefully, that helps answer your question.

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Looks like what I was looking for. Count me in for 1. $75 per battery if order 20? Count me in for 2 @ $75.

Sounds good Doug! I also posted this on another fishing site (are we allowed to mention names??) and there are 3-4 guys over there that are also interested.

Since that puts us at 8-10 in less than a day, I’d like to let this go a bit since we have time before ice comes and try and hit that 20+ mark and really drive prices down.

I’ll be keeping the first post updated with those interested and the number we’re at.

Let’s get to 20! We’re already halfway there in just one day.

Running the Bienno Power battery for two years now well worth it. Got mines during the Black Friday sale with 10% off. Battery + lithium charger for about $100. Always buy the proper charger for a lithium battery. I’ve heard of guys using smart sla chargers causing the battery to fail after some use.

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Ben,

Count me in for 2 @ $75. I live in Woodbury, MN so I could just swing by and pick them up…??

Thanks,
Jeff

Andy, I’ve heard a few good things about that brand as well. I reached out to them about a group buy and never got a response.

I’ll ask Dakota today when I talk to them about seeing if they’ll offer us a discounted bundled package with a charger for those that need one.

I’ll be using the Noco 7200 that I currently have to charge it.
Sooner or later, I’m going to have to bite the bullet and upgrade to the G4 four port model.

jtstarvinmarvin wrote:

Ben,

Count me in for 2 @ $75. I live in Woodbury, MN so I could just swing by and pick them up…??

Thanks,
Jeff

Jeff,
Great! I have 11 as of this morning. At this rate I’m holding out for 20 so we can hit that $75 price.

Dakota said they’ll be willing to take orders over the phone so you’ll be able to call them, pay with your CC, and they’ll ship directly to you.

Looks like I can no longer update the first post to track those insterested.

Just added another individual from the “other” forum, so we’re up to 13 now. Only need 7 more!

Who else is interested?

+1 from the other forum.

We’re up to 14!

I would take 2 plus a charger, shipped to Omaha, NE

Terry Heese wrote:

I would take 2 plus a charger, shipped to Omaha, NE

Terry, welcome to the list! I’ll get you added.

And just like that, we’re up to 16 and knocking on the door of 20.

2 for this guy.

Timmy wrote:

2 for this guy.

You’re on the list!

That brings us to 18.

Oh BTW – mine will ship to ‘da Iron Range….. doncha kno……

Timmy wrote:

Oh BTW – mine will ship to ‘da Iron Range….. doncha kno……

You betcha!

Someone from the other forum just committed to 2, so we just hit 20!

I’ll be talking to Dakota/CleanRepublic tomorrow on logistics and bundled deals for those that have asked for chargers.

I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon with more info.

And just because we hit 20, if someone else wants to take advantage of this, just chime in and let me know. I’m happy to keep this running as I expect more people might become interested as we get closer to ice season.