Two Battery Wire Up

Ok Can I hook two batteries up in series?? meaning black to black, red to red. And will both get a good charge or is it too much for the charging system to try and charge two batteries??

Re: Two Battery Wire Up

Yes to the hookup and yes to charging, but the time required will depend on the amps of your charger -- both the motor's or the portable type.

Re: Two Battery Wire Up

I don't pretend to be an electrical genius but won't that type of hookup(series) produce 24 volts?

Re: Two Battery Wire Up

If you hook black to black and red to red you are connecting them in parallel which will produce 12 volts. If you do this you should use similar batteries of the same age. If you have one bad battery it will drain the other battery. It is best to buy two new batteries at the same time.<br /><br />Alot depends on what type of motor you have. If you have a 125 HP with an alternator it should keep them charged unless you do a lot of trolling with an electric motor. Good luck

Re: Two Battery Wire Up

Originally posted by scotiany:<br /> I don't pretend to be an electrical genius but won't that type of hookup(series) produce 24 volts?

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Series yes. The above description, No. Neg to pos to get 24V. (or with 6V batteries you get 12V).<br /><br />Aldo

Re: Two Battery Wire Up

To clear up the confusion.<br /><br />Yes, connecting them in series will produce 24 volts. However, the first post does NOT describe connecting them in series, even though he says "series" Black to black and red to red would be in parallel, which will produce 12 volts.<br /><br />On that note, I advise caution. Batteries have internal resistance which is usually very small, most often milli-ohms. If one battery is old, and gets weak faster, you can get one battery that is several volts higher than the other. This can be a problem, since they are connected, several volts over a few milli-ohms can produce very high current. <br /><br />So you get the "good" battery discharging into the "bad" battery at a very high rate, which can damage both batteries.<br /><br />If you are going to hook batteries in parallel, I suggest brand new matched batteries. The larger the difference in the batteries, the bigger the risk. I suggest getting two batteries both the same size and type from the same manufacturer, to reduce any chances of problems.