When choosing a battery for your boat, dedicated trolling motor in this case, all that matters in the purchase decision is what you get for the money you spend, assuming of course, quality is equal. I already gave a good example between a Cabela's battery and the Optima, and for $20 less money, I get almost an hour more reserve capacity. A little easier to make a decision that way than simply looking at "similar" batteries without knowing their actual performance numbers. To decide between the LS battery and Sears, you need to know what type each battery is and what its reserve capacity is. Once you know that, you are now comparing apples to apples. :thumright
Warranty is a non-issue to me, if a battery is going to fail due to manufacturing defects, it's usually going to do so within a year, year and a half or less. All battery mfr's know this and that's one reason why battery warranties are short. The other reason is they have no control over how the battery is cared for once it's sold, so they limit their exposure through shorter warranty periods.
I've had numerous DieHard RV/Marine batteries in the past, and they always died hard early. No more for me.
