24 Volt........12 Volt ?????

jlowe23 · Jul 5, 2013

I purchased a 24 Volt trolling motor the other day and I am ready to hook it up. Now get this.

My boat has two batteries and a selector switch. The switch goes from battery "1" to battery "2" to "ALL" . Does this mean 24 Volt?

Just experimenting I hooked up the 24 Volt motor to one of the batteries with the selector switch in the "ALL" position. The motor came on and appeared to run fine.

Am I correct in my thought process or am I messing something up?

Thanks

NYBo · Jul 5, 2013

Re: 24 Volt........12 Volt ?????

Nope, you've got the two batteries in parallel, which is 12 volts. You can get 24 volts by hooking them up in series but you will need to remove the battery switch from the circuit, and tap one battery for the 12 volt circuits. Search this forum for a detailed diagram.

saumon · Jul 5, 2013

Re: 24 Volt........12 Volt ?????

Better yet, you should get a third battery. Typical set-up with 24V TM is a dedicated starting battery for the main engine and 2 deep cycle batteries for the trolling motor. That way, you won't take the chance to completely drain your starting battery.

NYBo · Jul 5, 2013

Re: 24 Volt........12 Volt ?????

saumon said:
Better yet, you should get a third battery. Typical set-up with 24V TM is a dedicated starting battery for the main engine a 2 deep cycle batteries for the trolling motor. That way, you won't take the chance to completely drain your starting battery.

Yes, that would be the best way to go.

fishrdan · Jul 5, 2013

Re: 24 Volt........12 Volt ?????

saumon said:
Better yet, you should get a third battery. Typical set-up with 24V TM is a dedicated starting battery for the main engine a 2 deep cycle batteries for the trolling motor. That way, you won't take the chance to completely drain your starting battery.

^^^ Agree

Be careful hooking up the batteries to 24V as you don't want to introduce 24V to the engine or electrical circuits of the boat. 24V will burn up things designed to run on 12V, it could get expensive really quick if the batteries are not connected properly.

jlowe23 · Jul 5, 2013

Re: 24 Volt........12 Volt ?????

Thanks for the suggestions. So the 24 Volt motor will run off of a 12 volt battery? I am not planning on doing that but I guess that is why the motor was working.

I think I will go with the 2 batteries for the motor.

fishrdan · Jul 5, 2013

Re: 24 Volt........12 Volt ?????

jlowe23 said:
So the 24 Volt motor will run off of a 12 volt battery?

You need 2- 12V batteries wired in series just for the trolling motor, so you get 24V for the 24V trolling motor. Then another battery for the engine/outboard if it requires a battery for starting. If the boat does not require a battery to start the engine, you could double duty one of the trolling batteries for the lights and electronics.

Trying to double duty one of the trolling batteries for starting the engine could leave you high and dry without the engine starting...

UncleWillie · Jul 6, 2013

Re: 24 Volt........12 Volt ?????

jlowe23 said:
... So the 24 Volt motor will run off of a 12 volt battery?...

What Make/Model Trolling motor do you have?
Many are 12/24 volt selectable.
A 24 volt motor running on 12 will be very slow.

If you have 2 batteries Now, you likely have a Starting Battery and a House Battery.
What is the Amp-Hour Rating of the House Battery? Deep Cycle?
If the System does NOT have an ACR, you would need to switch to BOTH while underway to charge the house battery.

To correctly add a 24 trolling motor, you will need 2 Deep cycle batteries in addition to the two existing batteries. 4 Batteries.
Mixing the house and the trolling loads risks killing the house battery permanently unless you monitor it closely.

The trolling batteries will also need a two bank 120 volt charger to recharge the 24v batteries.
This is probably more than planned for!

fishrdan · Jul 6, 2013

Re: 24 Volt........12 Volt ?????

UncleWillie said:
The trolling batteries will also need a two bank 120 volt charger to recharge the 24v batteries.
This is probably more than planned for!

You won't absolutely need an 2 bank onboard charger for the deep cycle batteries, but it does make things one whole heck of a lot easier. A good quality 3 stage (smart) charger is definitely needed for long battery life, but it's cumbersome connecting it to each battery, dragging it out to the boat, connecting it, connecting it to the other battery the next day........ I have it both ways on my 2 boats, and the boat with the onboard is certainly much easier to charge the batteries.

jlowe23 · Jul 7, 2013

Re: 24 Volt........12 Volt ?????

UncleWillie said:
What Make/Model Trolling motor do you have?
Many are 12/24 volt selectable.
A 24 volt motor running on 12 will be very slow.

I picked up a Minn Kota EM/MK 80 24 Volt for my Center console with a 200 HP Johnson.

If you have 2 batteries Now, you likely have a Starting Battery and a House Battery.
What is the Amp-Hour Rating of the House Battery? Deep Cycle?
If the System does NOT have an ACR, you would need to switch to BOTH while underway to charge the house battery.

I will have to check this out.

To correctly add a 24 trolling motor, you will need 2 Deep cycle batteries in addition to the two existing batteries. 4 Batteries.

Dang...that's A LOT of batteries. I may have to get a dingy and pull them all behind me.

This is probably more than planned for!

Ummmm...Yeah!

UncleWillie · Jul 7, 2013

Re: 24 Volt........12 Volt ?????

jlowe23 said:
I picked up a Minn Kota EM/MK 80 24 Volt for my Center console with a 200 HP Johnson....

The MK80/EM is one serious motor.

Don't shortchange yourself on the batteries.
You can expect the pair to last 3-5 hours depending on how hard you push them.
If you want them to last they need to be recharged at the end of the day and not a few days later.

fishrdan · Jul 7, 2013

Re: 24 Volt........12 Volt ?????

UncleWillie said:
The MK80/EM is one serious motor.

Don't shortchange yourself on the batteries.
You can expect the pair to last 3-5 hours depending on how hard you push them.

^ Agree... What do you plan to do with the EM80, how long do you want to run it and at what speed, size and weight of boat? I wouldn't go cheap on the batteries and get small group 24 or 27 batteries.....

I have a 70# MK Vector TM on my 18'er and can only get around 5 hours of trolling at speed 5 (50% power) with 2 group 29 batteries, then the batteries need to be recharged.

jlowe23 · Jul 8, 2013

Re: 24 Volt........12 Volt ?????

I use a 18.5 footer center console with a 200 hp Johnson on it to crab out of. I have had trouble running the Johnson slow enough to pull the pots efficiently.

What are everyone's thoughts on a 24 volt battery? If I have to pick up a pair of new batteries anyway I thought that might be the way to go. It would help with storage space also. I do realize I would need a 24 volt charger.

UncleWillie · Jul 9, 2013

Re: 24 Volt........12 Volt ?????

A 24 Volt battery will lower your battery count but not the space needed or weight.
The power is in the lead.
One 24v 100 AH battery is going to be about the same as Two 12v 100AH batteries, only more expensive because they are not as common.

24 Volt........12 Volt ?????

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