Wiring Advice for 24V TM and 12V Downrigger

[Mrj.boat]

Looking for some good wiring advice/diagram to get my 24 volt Motorguide trolling motor wired up and my 12 volt electric Scotty Downriggers connected. My boat has 3 total batteries, the starting batter and two 12 volt deep cycle batteries in a battery compartment that I plan to use for the Motorguide and scotty's. Running a jumper between the + of battery1 and the - of battery2 gets me 24V for the TM, but then I think I am too much for my 12V scotty's, even though they are wired individually to each battery. I am an rookie at wiring - any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Wiring Advice for 24V TM and 12V Downrigger

How many down riggers are we talking about here? You can do what you want to do but the number of down riggers will raise havoc with the run time for the troller. The down riggers draw a fair amount of current themselves so keep that in mind. Here is a diagram of how to wire the troller and 12 volt accessories. Note that the down riggers are connected to the battery on the left which has the "system" ground connection. For utmost protection, DO NOT connect one down rigger to one battery and another down rigger to the other. Yes - on board chargers are connected individually but there is a reason they can do that. It's called isolated grounds. You cannot guarantee the grounds on the boat for this and other accessories will never be confused and incorrectly connected in which case you toast a boatful of electronics by feeding it 24 volts.

 

[mikeyp77]

Re: Wiring Advice for 24V TM and 12V Downrigger

How many down riggers are we talking about here? You can do what you want to do but the number of down riggers will raise havoc with the run time for the troller. The down riggers draw a fair amount of current themselves so keep that in mind. Here is a diagram of how to wire the troller and 12 volt accessories. Note that the down riggers are connected to the battery on the left which has the "system" ground connection. For utmost protection, DO NOT connect one down rigger to one battery and another down rigger to the other. Yes - on board chargers are connected individually but there is a reason they can do that. It's called isolated grounds. You cannot guarantee the grounds on the boat for this and other accessories will never be confused and incorrectly connected in which case you toast a boatful of electronics by feeding it 24 volts.

Hi Silvertip,

Might seem obvious but i'm quite the rookie when it comes to this stuff; If the downriggers and trolling motor are never used at the same time (i have a gas kicker), then i imagine there aren't going to be any issues at all with this approach.... correct?

Also, assuming again that the riggers will never be used in conjunction with the trolling motor, is there a more optimal approach? don't mind using switches and such...


thanks,
mike

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Wiring Advice for 24V TM and 12V Downrigger

Mikey - Please read the forum rules. This thread is 4 years old. Start your own thread and don't piggy back on old threads. Thank you for your understanding.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Wiring Advice for 24V TM and 12V Downrigger

It doesn't matter if either or both are in operation. What does matter is whatever you operate will suck juice from the batteries. The more you use the downriggers, the less troller run time you will have because you are sucking the life out that single battery..