NEED help wireing trolling motor

[whttlbucksteve]

I have a 12/24 volt trolling motor and need to know were to put the two power wires.I have the batteries set for 24 volt system.

[redkneck]

I'm not sure I totally understand. You have a 24v system in your boat? What wires are you talking about?

[ruttinbuc]

You need the motor positive lead red to the positive post on battery #1.

Battery #1 negative to Battery #2 positive.

motor negative lead to Battery #2 negative.

[Texan_Til_I_Die]

Correct. Or to put it another way:

Connect the positive of one battery to the negative of the other battery, then connect the positive lead from the TM to the unused positive battery terminal and the negative lead from the TM to the unused negative battery terminal.

NOTE: This will give you 24V only operation (which I highly recommend). If you want 12/24V operation (which I don't recommend), you'll need to pull a 3rd wire to the TM.

[Shaun_300]

If you have two power wires you have the batteries connected in parrallel, which is 12V, you need to wire them in series to get 24V. To do this, do what Texan said.

[TBow]

whttlbucksteve,

Although I haven't seen the trolling motor you're speaking of, there's some things that will just be logical such as:

1. If your trolling motor has the capability to run on either 12 or 24 volt, then there either has to be:

a) a switch on or in the motor housing or on an external controller that says "12 VOLT" or "24 VOLT". Just switch to the preferred voltage and / or battery voltage available. Then configure your batteries to the appropriate voltage (ie: series or parallel connection)

OR

b) The battery lead wires require a connection on the motor or controller that will be labelled "12" or "24" Volt operation. If it's a 2-wire battery lead system, then connect to the appropriately labelled terminal on the motor and then to your batteries.

OR

c) There will be a 3-wire battery lead system going from the motor to your battery(ies). One wire will be labelled " - negative" and should be common whether you use a 12 or 24 volt system. The other two wires should be labelled "+ 12 volt positive" and "+24 volt positive" respectively. You should only be using two wires, the negative lead and only one of the positive leads depending on the voltage that your battery system is.

OR

d) There will be a 4-wire system in which case there will be two negative wires (and labelled as such) and two positive leads and should be labelled too. The 4 wires will connect back at or near the motor and will have terminals that should be appropriately labelled.

Depending on which system your motor was provided with, your 2 x 12 volt batteries (we're assuming they're 12 volt batteries) could be wired in series to provide you with a 24 volt system and there's been an explanation of how to do that in someone else's previous posting.

There is a possibility however, that in the case of a 4-wire system, all of your series connections are done at the terminal block at or near the motor itself, which means that the batteries are NOT connected in series at the batteries themselves and each battery will have two wires connected to it from the motor.

You should also be installing a fuse or breaker on the positive lead if one has not been provided by the motor manufacturer. It will likely be rated at something like 50 amps or there abouts.

As you can see from this list, if you're not sure of what's going on with your wiring or the battery connections, then call a friend who has some electrical background or knowledge. And remember, a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous. Lead acid batteries have a lot of current (power) potential and cause severe personal injuries and damage to components if not handled or connected properly.

I have to think that there should have been a wiring diagram either with your motor or at least available from a dealer or even on line.

Without knowing what type of system you have, most of us are just throwing darts at the board here and would need some more info to be specific. Good luck.

TBow