Trolling motor from 24v to 12v

spacerust

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Feb 18, 2008
Messages
190
My boat is set up for a 24v trolling motor. I just got a 12v trolling motor. I didn't know at first but when I plugged it in, it worked but then it stopped. I looked underneath and saw it was connected as a 24v. I'm going to check the 50amp fuse and can I just rewire the trolling motor to one battery? or would the 24v hurt it if I just changed the fuse?
 

BobGinCO

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
May 22, 2012
Messages
539
Re: Trolling motor from 24v to 12v

24V will smoke it like a cuban cigar.
Hopefully you didn't do that already.

Yes you can wire it to just one battery, or to both, if you re-wire them in parallel, instead of series.

Series:

Red Wire--- + battery 1 - --- + battery 2 - --- Black wire

Parallel:

Red wire ---+ Battery 1 - --- Black wire
............... + Battery 2 -

That's right wire the + sides together, and the - sides. It will give you twice the run-time of just one battery.
 

Silvertip

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Sep 22, 2003
Messages
28,758
Re: Trolling motor from 24v to 12v

24V will smoke it like a cuban cigar.
Hopefully you didn't do that already.

Yes you can wire it to just one battery, or to both, if you re-wire them in parallel, instead of series.

Series:

Red Wire--- + battery 1 - --- + battery 2 - --- Black wire

Parallel:

Red wire ---+ Battery 1 - --- Black wire
............... + Battery 2 -

That's right wire the + sides together, and the - sides. It will give you twice the run-time of just one battery.


But again -- we have no idea what the troller end of this 12/24 system looks like so just paralleling back at the battery does not solve the problem.. Know what the ENTIRE system looks like before you do this.
 

Silvertip

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Sep 22, 2003
Messages
28,758
Re: Trolling motor from 24v to 12v

Ever wonder what happens to a 6 volt light bulb when you hook it to 12 volts? Or what happens to a 120 volt appliance if you go you Europe and plug it into 240 volts AC. Well the light bulb gets really bright just before it goes "poof". And your electric shaver runs really fast before it goes up in smoke (unless it is a dual voltage unit and is also capable of operating on 50 Hz power). Your motor was designed to operate on 12 volts. So no -- it will not survive on 24 volts. Will it run on 24 volts? Certainly -- for how long we can't tell you. For others following this thread and are changing trolling motors, if your boat has a three or four wire system, make sure you know what you are doing before running that new 12 volt motor. If you have a two wire system and you KNOW the boat has/had two batteries, understand this was a 24 volt system. If those two batteries are still in place they will be in series, the system will be two wire, and there will be 24 volts at the plug. Fix it before you connect your 12 volt motor.
 
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