Stereo connection?

[glendam]

Can I connect my stereo to my 24v trolling motor batteries in the front of the boat? I have a 2 bank charger connected to them and would take the worry out of draining my starting battery down while on the water. If so can the red and yellow wires connect directly to the positive post and black to the neg. post on the battery? The receiver has a 10 fuse that plugs right into the back of the unit, will this protect the stereo or do I need additional fuses attached to the hot wires?

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

[marine_man]

A couple of questions.

First, how is your 24 volt system wired? Is there a jumper in between the batteries to make 24 volts, or is the jumper built into the trolling motor plug in and your batteries have seperate batter cables?

Second, AM reception while a trolling motor on is typically poor to start, but by connecting directly to the trolling motor you have very little chance of getting anything AM and a chance that your FM clarity will be reduced due to the trolling motor interference.

If it were me I'd just go to the starting battery and be done with it. If you listen to that much radio that you're concerned about running the starting battery down by a bigger starting battery, wire in another battery for accessories, or bring a seperate radio.

Unless you're running the radio non stop all day with all your other accessories I'd really be suprised if it draws down your starting battery to the point where your motor won't start.

marine_man

[glendam]

The cables come from the 24v trolling motor and are linked to each battery separately. I'm not as concerned about radio reception while the motor is running as I am about playing cd's. The boat is a tiller and I do more back trolling than running the TM anyways. What about the connections to the battery itself, do they need to have a fuse inline or will the fuse on the unit itself be o.k.? Since I have the charger connected to these batteries and they dont get much use I thought that I might as well hook up the reciever to them and simply plug in the charger when I get off the water.

Thanks for the reply

[marine_man]

Quote:

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The cables come from the 24v trolling motor and are linked to each battery separately.

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If I'm interpreting this correctly there is no jumper wire between your batteries, right?

If that's the case and all you play are CD's I can't think of any problem with hooking up to the trolling motor batteries.

In regard to the fuse, the one that is supplied with the Stereo should be sufficient.

marine_man

[Scott K]

The only thing I can add to this is, you would want the fuse as close to the battery as possible, so if you run a wire directly to the battery from your radio, and that wire from your radio shorts on something, its not protected. It would be a good idea to run another fuse at the battery!

[glendam]

If its a 10 amp fuse in the receiver should the in line fuse be a 10 also?

[Scott K]

Yes a 10 amp will be fine. With installing the fuse at the battery all you are protecting is the wire to the other fuse, the radio manufacturer installs the fuse to protect the radio. You could cut the other fuse off and install it at the battery, then you would only have one fuse protecting the entire circuit, inwhich is all thats needed, but the closer to the battery, the more of the circuit is protected!