Dean's John Deere TE Gator Gets Lithium the Day After Christmas

September 24, 2026

The battery showed up quickly and in one piece. Dean LeBlanc still waited until December 26 to put it in. The vehicle is a John Deere TE Gator, and about five hours after he started, the DIGI MARKER HP-Standard 48V 105Ah was in and the Gator was ready to drive.

What Came Out

The Gator left the factory with eight 6-volt batteries. By Dean's numbers, the cart weighed about 1,389 pounds as delivered, and roughly 500 of those pounds were batteries. Whatever else the swap changed, it took serious weight off the frame under the seats.

A Week and a Half of Homework

Before buying, he spent about a week and a half on YouTube. What sold him was the safety features, plus the built-in converter that takes the pack's 48V down to 12V.

Install guides for the TE Gator specifically are scarce. He found enough to decide the conversion could be done, and that was enough to order.

The battery arrived undamaged. He was happy with the delivery, and noted that heavy packages usually reach him that way.

He shared the photos in a separate post: “Already did a review, just wanted to share a couple of pictures of my install i to the John Deere TE Gator.”

First Drive

The throttle is what he mentions first. He estimates the swap cut close to 400 pounds, and ties the cart's quicker response to that.

His description of the first test drive: be ready when you push the go pedal.

The battery and charger installed in the Gator

Charging Without the Heavy Lifting

Charging got easier too. The old setup used a heavy external charger, and moving it was more than his wife wanted to deal with. The Gator had no onboard charger.

Now he runs an extension cord out to the cart and plugs into the charging port that comes with the kit. Nothing to lift, just a cord.

He kept the original charge port. In his install photos, the new covered port sits just above the old one, next to the seat.

He is happy with the purchase so far. On the long term, his answer was that time will tell.

Source: Dean LeBlanc's review and install photos, December 27, 2025, on DigiMarker's product page. Weight figures are his own estimates. Screenshot from his review.

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