My question is if anyone knows if you can you put a 12 volt to 24 volt converter that would run a minn Kota 24 volt 70 lb thrust trolling motor from just one marine deep cycle battery.
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I’m guessing it wouldn’t last long if it did work. And for $100 I would just buy a new battery and wire it for 24 and not have to worry about it
There are cheeper ones. Your only guessing on this. They make them to do covert to 12 to 24, 12 to 36, hell even 12 volt to 120 volt ac. Military uses them on there 24 volt trucks with a step down converter from 24 volt to 12 volt.
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There are cheeper ones. Your only guessing on this. They make them to do covert to 12 to 24, 12 to 36, hell even 12 volt to 120 volt ac. Military uses them on there 24 volt trucks with a step down converter from 24 volt to 12 volt.
The one you have selected here only has 20A. I would guess you’re going to need 40 or 50 amp output at a minimum. Anything less wont give you full power and may burn out your converter in very short order.
A power converter will work, you’ll have a shorter run time on your battery since the power converter is going to be drawing some amperage as well, and you’re going to need a converter that has an output of 50-60 amps.
Lets say you have a 120AH battery, (I usually only figure draining down to 20%) so you have 96AH available, if your max amp draw from the trolling motor is 42 amps and the power converter draws 3 amps now you’re at a total amp draw of 45 amps. Your battery will only last 2 hours or less.
The one you have posted in the last post is only rated for 20 amps and isn’t going to work.
Looks like they are roughly $199 – $279 on amazon
I agree with Jake.
Spend your money on a set of new batteries, or buy a smaller trolling motor.
Your knowledge seems a lot more then the rest. I would agree on the 40 to 50 amp ones which are yes very expensive. I was just thinking the amps in would be 12 volts with less draw on a battery because the unit is stepping up the current kind of like the ones in cars from 12 volt to 120 volt ac. I have one mounted the same in the boat 12 v dc to 120 volt ac it works great. That was how I was thinking the other unit would work by placing the trolling motor in a compartment in a box under the bow. Was just a brainstorm idea.
Do you have a battery that will deliver 85+ amps?
Was trying to think outside of the box. Yes for years people have been wiring batters in series 24; 36 etc. With today’s technology was thinking there must be an easier and better way to do it.
Was trying to think outside of the box. Yes for years people have been wiring batters in series 24; 36 etc. With today’s technology was thinking there must be an easier and better way to do it.
Basically if you are perfectly efficient, 42 amps (from minnkota) at 24v could be converted from 84 amps. Power needs to stay the same (current * voltage). In reality there are some losses in conversion, plus batteries often perform worse and last less at higher current. And the losses from wire resistance are worse – so more current requires bigger wires.
Basically the higher voltage motors are designed specifically to give you more power with an acceptable amount of current that won’t kill batteries or require huge wires.
The better way would be a 24v or 36v battery. And if you want to use it for 12v as well, then use a voltage converter to drop that down to 12v where needed.
Basically something like this plus a converter to 12v if you want to run everything from one battery:
Was trying to think outside of the box. Yes for years people have been wiring batters in series 24; 36 etc. With today’s technology was thinking there must be an easier and better way to do it.
This past weekend I replaced an old 12v powerdrive with a 24 volt powerdrive. The process literally took 15 minutes to change everything out with the receptacles and wire the batteries correctly to get the 24v. With a multi-meter this is a very simple process. Not sure how it could get an easier. Good luck in the search
I am looking into this same question. I am building LiFeP04 (lithium iron phosphate) batteries that will serve multiple functions. I would like to build them as 12v batteries, for the convenience of powering a lot of different 12v devices. While I could put two of them in my boat, wired in series for 24v, that increases the weight I have to carry. That results in hauling around a lot more power than I might need for a day’s worth of running the trolling motor.
With a step-up converter, 12v-24v, you draw twice as many amps, with an efficiency loss of 5-10%. However, if you are using a single 180AH LiFeP04 battery, capable of a full C discharge rate (180amps), and your trolling motor only draws 50 to 60 amps, peak, then you would be drawing 100 to 120 amps (at max speed for your motor). This means you could only run for 3 hours or so, under perfect conditions…probably 3 hours for a 50amp draw and 2.5 hours for a 60amp draw. However, keep in mind that is running your trolling motor on its highest setting, continuously. If you run it at 50% of max, you more than double the amount of time you can run it. Is 5 to 6 hours of run time, at 50%, sufficient to your daily trolling motor use needs? For many of us, that’s plenty, so a single 180AH LiFeP04 battery (~50lbs) and a 4lb converter would save you about 80lbs of weight, versus a comparable SLA/AGM (lead acid) solution.
Thoughts, observations, rude comnments?
. However, if you are using a single 180AH LiFeP04 battery, capable of a full C discharge rate (180amps), and your trolling motor only draws 50 to 60 amps, peak, then you would be drawing 100 to 120 amps (at max speed for your motor). This means you could only run for 3 hours or so, under perfect conditions…probably 3 hours for a 50amp draw and 2.5 hours for a 60amp draw. However, keep in mind that is running your trolling motor on its highest setting, continuously. If you run it at 50% of max, you more than double the amount of time you can run it.
I believe there is am error in your equation.
180AH @ 12 volts (battery voltage)
50 amp draw @ 24 volts = 100 amp draw @ 12 volts (battery voltage)
100 amp draw from 180 amp battery = less than 2 hours at max draw (before even allowing for efficiency loss)
“If you run it at 50% of max, you more than double the amount of time you can run it.” “3 hours for a 50amp draw and 2.5 hours for a 60amp draw.”
You are already at 50% with those figures, you already said it would be a 100 to 120 amp draw on the battery at max load.
I think you’re right…I did the math, but forgot to double the amps being drawn.
If your trolling motor was drawing 40 amps @ 24v, that’s 80 amps at 12v, so you’d barely get 2 hours of near-max run time, at that rate.
At the same time, my current 2 AGM’s are rated for 100AH, but they can only be drawn down about 40% without worrying about damaging them. That means I’m currently working with about 40AH of power, at 24v. Not taking into account efficiency losses, I would need 80AH at 12v to get the same amount of time/power out of my trolling motor. Since you can draw LiFePO4 batteries down 90%, I have about 162AH at 12v to work with…that’s twice as much as I’m actually able to use from the 2 100AH AGM’s. The AGM’s weigh 68lb/ea and the 180AH LiFePO4 weighs about 50lbs, plus 5lbs for the converter.
I’m not sure I’m going to go this route, but it’s something I’m considering. Two smaller lithium batteries, in the 50AH range, wired in series, would give me about 45AH @ 24v, but only weigh around 30lbs, total. The specific energy of LiFePO4 is that much higher than lead acid.
The bottom line is lithium batteries weigh a lot less, and can be drawn down a lot more, so you’re getting about 4 times as much usable power out of the same amp-hour rating. Alternatively, you can cut the weight by 1/2 to 2/3’s and still have the same available power. One final advantage to lithium is you don’t get the voltage sag that you see from lead acid, which means you don’t have to keep turning up your trolling motor all day, to get the same amount of thrust from a given setting.
Lots of things to consider, but I’m not sure the step-up converter is the way to go…
There are cheaper ones. Your only guessing on this. They make them to do covert to 12 to 24, 12 to 36, hell even 12 volt to 120 volt ac. Military uses them on there 24 volt trucks with a step down converter from 24 volt to 12 volt.
Yes however these are for automotive/truck applications that have a heavy duty alternator supplying all the input current it needs. These devices are terribly inefficient, maybe 30% loses and unless you switch the 12 volt input to start the trolling motor this device will have a high idle current and drain your batteries just sitting there. The first post shows a 960W for $100, which is pretty cheap and it tells me it’s not a high end device. You can tell as the entire case is acting as a heat sink for the heating of the main power switching device. It is definitely thinking outside the box however! I have small boost converters to hold up the voltage on my depth finders but switch at the input, I had them custom designed to minimize their loses. I still have issues and will go to a lithium in the spring. That isn’t a solution for everyone. I prescribe to the KISS method, Keep It Simple Stupid! I would simply power with the right batteries, based on your budget, and a good charger. The boost converter is just another layer of complexity for a simple problem. Plus, nothing is free! Good luck.
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