Setting up 24V System in Boat

[onthejob2]

My friend is buying a 24V trolling motor and niether of us know anything about wiring. Is it pretty basic/easy to set his Lund Fisherman up for this? I figured someone on here has to have done it before.

Thanks in advance.

[PerchJerker]

Should be very easy. I don't know what the wiring is like in that boat, but there's basically two ways to do it.

One is to run the negative post from one battery and the positive post from the other battery to the trolling motor port, with a jumper between the other posts on the batteries and a circuit breaker in the positive wire. That's how my boat is set up now.

The other way is to have each batteries + and - terminals connected to a wiring harness that goes to the trolling motor port. In this setup the conversion to 24 volts is made in how the connector plug is wired at the trolling motor port. In this setup each battery should have an in-line fuse or circuit breaker.

Hope this helps, good luck.

[PierBridge]

Here is a basic 24 volt system with 12 volt Accessory feed set up

[Dale Rueber]

If you wanted to charge this setup without removing the batteries how would you do that? I'm guessing that you would need to use a 24v charger that would connect the same terminals as the trolling motor. What is normally done for a 24v system? How would it work if you wanted to charge both batteries from the outboard alternator?

[PerchJerker]

To charge this set-up, get a 12 volt charger with 1 "bank" for each 12 volt battery you have. Run a set of leads to each battery.

[Whoaru99]

I would speculate the Lund Fisherman has the wiring type that gives you 12v or 24v depending how you connect the plug to the trolling motor wires.

Before stringing new wires, or cutting up any existing wires, see if you can find something on Lund's HSOforum - or call them.

If all else fails, check the Owner's Manual for the boat.

If you want to charge the batteries of a 24v system from the engine, you will need a charging device made to do that. I see MinnKota has one called a DC Alternator Charger.

Bear in mind though, that a device like this probably will extend your run time, but probably won't keep the batteries fully charged - unless you hardly use the trolling motor, or drive a LONG way on the water with the engine.

[Boogaard]

I recently bought a 1750 fisherman last year and did all the wiring to it. On mine there are 2 empty spaces below the counsel and the passenger side glove box. Put one battery on each side. There should already possibly be some tubes that are run between the two spaces just for this setup. If not unscrew the floor board directly between the 2 spaces to have acess to run your wires. On the passenger side I mounted a charger hooked up to the battery so you can just plug in your power cord from outside to boat to the charger and it will charge both batteries! another thing i did was installed a marine recepticle on the outside down by the feet of both spots. to be able to plug in a spot light or cell phone charge. Those are simple. just get some regular wire. Hook leads up corrisponding to the + and - terminals from batter to outlet! dont forget to put in a fuse breaker on the + side or your wires. hope i didnt confuse? If you add anything else the fuse box pulls out from infront of the drives side and its pretty easy to add breakers to the many empty slots!

[marine_man]

A Lund Fisherman probably already has wiring set up for a trolling motor.

See how many battery leads (and trays - if there's only one tray it's probably setup for 12V only) there are - if you've got one red/black pair and one orange/black pair that run to the front, his boat is setup for 12 or 24 volts and you'll need to make the right connection at the trolling motor plug when you attach it to the trolling motor.

The best bet to figure out which wires to connect to the trolling motor is to plug the plug into the socket & use a multimeter to measure voltage to the ground (black) lead / pin.

Good luck!

marine_man

[PierBridge]

Great advice marine_man if you hook up the trolling motor incorrectly you will fry your board.

Very important to get the right voltage going in the right places especially 24 and 36 volt trolling motors that require 12 volt feeds.

[onthejob2]

Thanks alot guys!! I knew somebody on here would have some ideas. Thanks again for all the help!