I've been reading up on lithium batteries. There are some being made that are 1/2 the width of an 8D with 200amps and weigh around 50# or so. So in roughly the same space of an 8D you can have 400amps instead of 250amps! And save about 50# per 8D battery. But the really interesting thing is you can discharge these down to about 20% of their rated capacity rather then 60% capacity of a lead acid battery. So if you have 6 8D's = 1500 amp/hours but only about 600 amp/hours usable. With the lithiums you only need 4 batteries at 800amps to get the same usable amp/hours. So you can save about 700 pounds of weight! And it looks like they may last 3-4 times as long. The downside is cost, they are $1200-1500/battery and you need a new charger/management system. So for 6 8Ds at $3000 the lithiums would cost twice as much. But if they last more than twice as long it might be a better deal.
Worth looking into if you need to replace your batteries.
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