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Trolling motor hookup question

NELS-BELLS

By NELS-BELLS
in Boats & Motors.

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NELS-BELLS Proficient

NELS-BELLS

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I have a 12 volt bow mounted trolling motor. I have 2 batteries mounted in various compartments in the bow with only a single bank battery charger. I want to wire a couple heavy duty extension cord ends to each battery. Then I can just plug the battery I want to use into your basic wall outlet that I will mount in the boat. The top part of the outlet will be wired to the trolling motor. The other will be wired to the charger. That way when the one battery runs low, I can unplug it and plug in the other battery, which will be fully charged. Then plug the dead battery into the bottom part of the outlet that is hooked to the charger and recharge it when I get home. (Hope I'm explaining that right.)

My question is, despite using the heaviest guage extension cord, will there be a noticable drop in power with my trolling motor due to the thinner guage wire and outlet? I noticed that the power cord on the trolling motor has a lot thicker wire then the wire in the extension cord.

Nels

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Tator2k Rising Star

Tator2k

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Yes, you're going to melt everything and possibly start a fire. The outlets and the wire you're looking to use can't handle the amp draw.

The think the heaviest wire a normal outlet will handle is 20A with 12 gauge wire. A standard 12V 50lb TM will draw nearly twice or more than that.

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NELS-BELLS Proficient

NELS-BELLS

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Sounds like this isn't as good of an idea as I thought. I didn't want to hook up both batteries in parallel because your batteries are only as good as your weakest battery and I really don't want to buy 2 new batteries each time. I liked the idea of having a reserve battery when one dies on the water. Then I have a pretty good idea of how much battery time I have left. Its especially nice on my annual 5 day trip to Namakan.

I was looking for a way to be able to switch from one battery to the other easily. I looked up switches and they are't cheap either, but that might be the route I go.

Thanks for the responses. I guess I'll just keep it the way it is for now.

Nels

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