wiring questions

[spooner_jr]

First of all, I know there have been a few wiring questions lately, so if these questions have already been covered, I apologize.

 

I have a new-to-me boat, which uses a 24v trolling motor and has an on-board charger. There was only one battery, so I need to get another, and figure out how everything was connected. I believe I connect neg from the trolling motor to neg on one battery, pos from motor to pos on other battery, and connect the remaining two battery posts. Is there a proper order to do this?

 

My second question involves the charger, it is a two bank charger with a separate charging wire for each battery. Is there a problem using the charger when the neg terminal on the one battery is connected to the pos on the other? There is an in-line fuse for each pos terminal, as well as for the neg terminal that is attached to the other positive. Not sure if I'm being clear or not.

 

Last question: when you run downriggers, do you run them off the starting battery, or the trolling motor batteries? I'll be using a kicker, so won't be charging the starting battery while trolling.

 

Thanks.

[Fisherman]

First of all, I know there have been a few wiring questions lately, so if these questions have already been covered, I apologize.

 

I have a new-to-me boat, which uses a 24v trolling motor and has an on-board charger. There was only one battery, so I need to get another, and figure out how everything was connected. I believe I connect neg from the trolling motor to neg on one battery, pos from motor to pos on other battery, and connect the remaining two battery posts. Is there a proper order to do this?

 

This is correct, connect the two battery terminals together, then the T-motor positive and the T-motor negative last.

 

My second question involves the charger, it is a two bank charger with a separate charging wire for each battery. Is there a problem using the charger when the neg terminal on the one battery is connected to the pos on the other? There is an in-line fuse for each pos terminal, as well as for the neg terminal that is attached to the other positive. Not sure if I'm being clear or not.

 

This is also correct, no porblem using the charger this way, the only recoomendation is to really make sure the T-motor is OFF and unplug it from the boat when not using it.

 

Last question: when you run downriggers, do you run them off the starting battery, or the trolling motor batteries? I'll be using a kicker, so won't be charging the starting battery while trolling.

 

Personally, I'd use the trolling battery to make sure you have starting power when needed.

 

Thanks.

[spooner_jr]

Thanks Fisherman, will hook it up tonight.

[Roy]

Careful now...if you run riggers from the deep cycles they'll need to be rendered 12v again by disconnecting them.

[spooner_jr]

Good point Roy. I'll probably hook up to the starter battery then.

[Fisherman]

Careful now...if you run riggers from the deep cycles they'll need to be rendered 12v again by disconnecting them.

 

NOT. Simply run the riggers off one set of terminals from only one battery, not from the combined batteries together, or run one rigger from each battery while both batteries are still connected in series.

[Roy]

NOT. Simply run the riggers off one set of terminals from only one battery, not from the combined batteries together, or run one rigger from each battery while both batteries are still connected in series.

 

Yes, I should have just said to connect to one battery and not the two batteries like he will have done with the bowmount.

[Terry]

yup

good info there

[spooner_jr]

Thanks again Fisherman. It will be easier to attach the riggers to the trolling motor batteries.