Trolling Motor and Boat Wiring

[jtk15]

I recently upgraded from 12 to 24 volts on the trolling motor. I have three total batteries, one is exclusive starting. The other two, I relize I need to wire them, but the question that I have.....the balance of the boat is already wired, and I essentially have two leads comming to the batteries..which includes the lights, electronics, and some aux stuff. Question is, do I essentially need to rewire the entire boat, or add a 12, and essentially run 12 v for the boat, and 24 v for the trolling motor exclusively.

Thanks in advance!

jtk15

[Jim Almquist]

All you will have to do is connect all of the other connections to the neg. and pos. on one of battery's and that will provide the 12 volts. You will connect the neg. from 1 and connect it to the pos. on battery 2 and connect your trolling motor across the neg. of 2 and pos. of 1 and that will give you your 24 volts. I hope this all makes sense

[jtk15]

In a nutshell, I am not able to run 24 v to the balance of the electronics I presume.

My options then are to take apart the connections at the battery, and run the existing 12 and change the trolling to 24, or just add 24 to the trolling motor power supply....correct?

Thanks again,

jtk15

[Jim Almquist]

I am not good at this but here is a crude diagram.

[skyhawk]

I don't know how you plan on charging the 24 volts. If you put in an onboard charger, make sure it will charge the 2 batteries as they are hooked up. If the charger has a common negative, it won't charge the batteries without opening the neg jumper between the two batteries. I don't know if any of the onboard chargers are like this but I have run into the problem in other battery situations. Instructions should have directions for 24v applications.

[Whoaru99]

I think it depends on how it's wired now.

Is this all scratch-built/homemade wiring? Or, do the batteries connect to a trolling motor plug that was prewired in the boat?