Battery placement / Wiring for 12 to 24v bow mount. * PART 2 * (with Diagram)

[Moose-Hunter]

Howdy All...

I'm helping out a buddy with mounting of a 24V bow mount trolling motor. Originally, his boat was rigged for a 12V motor up front. His front, under deck storage is quite limited and even one battery takes up a ton of space. He's kind of like me and takes everything AND the kitchen sink. We "can" mount both batteries up front, HOWEVER, "he'd rather not if he can help it."

His thoughts are to split up the battery locations and use longer wiring. All the 24V systems I've ever installed had the batteries right next to each other, so this concept is a bit new for me...

Question... When rigging for a 24V bow mount trolling motor, do the batteries need to be "close" to each other, or can one be in the bow compartment and the other, amidships in a different storage compartment?

Your thoughts and ideas are welcomed....

[Paul Waldowski]

Dan,

Many boats come pre-rigged with the 24 volt system where one battery is located in the bow and one is located in a compartment in the middle of the boat. Just be sure that you are using 8 guage or heavier wire to link the batteries. If the run is over 10 feet in length, I would drop down to 6 guage. Nothing like squeezing out as much power as possible

[Moose-Hunter]

Thanks Paul...

That's kind of what I was thinking... I've got both 8 and 6 gauge in stock so I think I'm good to go...

Go figure... I'm wiring someone else's boat and not my own... LOL!!! Gotta love those side jobs!! BUT, I've gotta tell ya, my garage looks pretty cool right now!!

Thanks again...

[Moose-Hunter]

Well here's a curve ball... My buddy wants to use his existing batteries AND keep his 12V transom mounted motor... Can we run the transom 12V motor from one battery an still have the bow mount motor rigged for 24V? Or with connections to both batteries be 24V?

If needed, can both motors be run at the same time in this configuration?

Here's a simple diagram of what we're thinking....Will this work?

Battery #1 is an existing battery. Possibly new last year. This battery seems to be physically larger than a standard deep cycle battery.

Battery #2 will be purchased new and most likely be a standard sized deep cycle battery.

[tomfromblaine]

Hi M.H., it's possible to run the set up that way but when when the 12volt unit is run I can see it hampering the performance of the 24 volt unit, if the 12volt unit is to be used every now and then why not change the starting battery to a dual purpose unit and hook the 12 volt unit there, just an idea I guess. P.S. thanks for the great deal on the 6800, she saw alot of action this season and my 5y.o. daughter out fished me on millacs and got her walleye badge.(gold depth bomb, which she wears proudly and does not let me for get it either.)

[Moose-Hunter]

Hi Tom...

We were thinking of using the starting battery (which appears to be a dual purpose) for the transom mount, but this guy's sort of a "boomer" and "needs his tunes." From what I remember when fishing with him last year, he uses the bow mount almost exclusively. And the transom very little.

His "tunes", along with all the other boat systems AND a 12V motor (if he were to use it) may be too much draw and cause possible "no start" problems. AND he has a gas kicker to boot... 4 motors, one boat....Hmmmm....

In regards to the 6800... You are very welcome!! I'm glad you and the little one made good use of it. And tell her congrats from me on her walleye badge!!

[18 inch Crappie]

Looks good, one idea, rotate the batterys every once in a while so the one battery used for 12v does not go bad before the other. By swaping both you get to run the 12v motor and both batterys and will get the same use over time..