on board charger - 24v setup

[GoodToGo]

I am switching from a 12 volt motorguide to a 24 volt Minnkota trolling motor. I have a three bank on board charger. I currently run my two trolling motor batteries in parallel. When I switch them to run in series, how do I set up the wires on my on board charger? Do I need to put a battery switch in?

[norma]

On your charger there should be three output sets of leads. Connect each set to an individual battery and you will be fine. On a three bank charger all outputs are isolated, ie it is like there are three chargers seprate chargers inside the box. You can connect the batteries series or parallel and it will not mater to the charger. Also if you have an extra set of outputs, such as a three bank charger with only two batteries connect all outputs even if you have to connect two to one battery. otherwise you run the risk of damaging your charger.

[Satchmo]

Make sure to unplug your trolling motor each time you plug in your charger to avoid frying any circuitry from power surges.

[Genofish]

Satchmo, do you recomend to disconnect graphs also? All of my electonics in my Lund are wired to the starting battery. I have a 3 bank charger for 2 trolling batteries and 1 starting battery

[Satchmo]

It's definately not a bad idea to pull the power cord on your graphs also. Most of the problems I have seen have been with trolling motors because most guys run 2-bank chargers on two deep cycle batteries. It's better to be safe than sorry. You can make this process easier on you and on your sonar connectors by installing a quick disconnect inline for your sonar/GPS power cords. Not totally necessary though, depends on which units you have and how easy they are to get to.