Help on how to hook batteries back up

Yesterday I had to replace an old battery that bit the bullet. Now today I cannot remember how they were hooked together . I am running my trolling motor of 24V. My main trolling motor line has 3 wires-1 red, 1 white, and 1 black. The white and red have a short stop box on the ends. I also have a red wire with two loops on the ends. I am pretty sure the red goes to the positive on both batteries. But which battery do the main red, black, and white go? Please help as soon as possible

What trolling motor is it?

It is an old Evinrude Scout. It has a switch on the side for 12 or 24v. I hope that helps some. I knew I should have drawn a diagram when I unhooked everything. I had it hooked up the way I thought it was, but the motor didn’t seem to have the same power as before.

Ouch, sorry cant help there. I knew it sounded like it wasn’t a normal motor. Hard to say, I don’t want to give bad advise and fry your motor. Any one of these three leads coming from the motor could be a common. If you have a 12 volt meter, you can check the leads when you switch the 12/24 switch and check for continuity and that will tell you what leads are for the 12 and what leads are for the 24. Once that has been determined, then you will be able to determine which two leads go to the same battery and then place the last lead to the second battery if you had them wired in parallel.

I would be careful, a motor that old probably doesn’t have reverse polarity protection.

Possibly Gianni can help?

I think I have it figured out . The three wires coming from the trolling motor are a ground and the two positive wires. The white and red both have fuses on the ends. So I hooked one red to the positive on one battery and the white to the positive on the other battery. I then took the jumper wire and connected it to the negatives on each battery. The motor ran good, so I hope it is right, otherwise I will be buying new batteries . Someday when I get big I am going to buy another Minnkota and simplify my life . Thanks for trying Derek

Sounds like that made sense. Now go right it down.

Doesn’t sound quite right. I’ll draw up a diagram after I get the kids to bed tonight, but can’t right now because of someone sitting on my lap pounding the keyboard.

Evinrude trollers are the same as motorguides (made by mg)

John,sounds like I have the same keyboard problem as you at times.Hope all is well with you good buddy!
Ryan Hale

I would appreciate you posting a diagram to compare to how I have it now. I could very well have it wrong . Sometimes my memory fails me at the wrong time . I am looking forward to your thoughts. Thanks.

For two batteries to produce 24v ,
the + of battery #1 has to be connected to – of battery #2.
The 24v side of the motor will need to connect to
the – side of battery #1, and the + side of battery #2..
The 12v side of the motor has to connect to the
+ and – side of the same battery.

I dought if the white is a ground wire.
I would suspect it attaches to the jumper between the two batteries.
But, I would use a volt/ohm meter to verify the switch
configuration first.

try this, but note that MG mislabeled the 12v wire as 24v.

I’ve never had a 24 v motor…just wondering where the white lead was for.
The whole diagram makes sense to me…except for the 2nd + lead (White).

Thanks!

Briank

Just so I am sure that I read this correctly. You hook the jumper on the positive on one battery and on the negative on the other battery. I am afraid to do this until completely sure that was right . I thought if you did that, it would blow the battery up or spark really bad. If you are correct, I will trust your knowledge and do it . I am totally lost when it comes to 12V and 24V, series and parrallel .

Just went and tried it followingthe diagram anf EUREAKA. We have super power again. Thanks guys your wisdom is very much appreciated. Now, can you make it warmer with a little sun >

Brian, the motorguides are 12/24 motors, so the white lead is for when you only want to run 12 volts. I think this is pretty much only used for when your batteries are running low, as in a conventional system your outboard is only connected to (and so, only charging) one of the batteries. If you got into a situation where your 2nd TM battery was starting to crap out, you could switch it to run only only the battery that your outboard was charging and go for a quick ride to rejuvinate it.

It is okay to connect the + on one battery (A) to the – on the other (B), so long as all you’re connecting to the “B” battery’s + terminal is a 24v accessory. The outboard and other accessories go as usual across the plus and minus of battery “A” so that the only thing running off the 2nd battery is the TM (and then only when the switch is on 24).

I’ll work on the sunshine. We got about a half hour right before sunset today and I had to ask the neighbors what the bright orb glowing in the sky was.

Thanks G!

OK, stupid question………

I’ve heard before that you can wire a 12v trolling motor, up to 24 volts by…….

+ to + to trolling motor.
– to – to trolling motor.

I’ve heard that this still keeps it 12v, but will lengthen the duration of your motor usage, via 2 batteries hooked up.

Is this correct?
Does it work?
Is it worth while?

I knew Gianni would be able to get it.

Gary, you’re not really wiring it to 24V. It’s still wiring it to 12V, there’s just twice as much of it

Hooking + to + to TM and likewise for minus will extend your runtime to the total capacity of the two batteries, but will not give you the added instantaneous power of a 24V system.

Thanks for the vote of confidence… Now if I could just escape work for a day and get some fishing done!

I thought I would post this picture of a 12 v system with two batteries.

Brian isn’t that a 24volt set up like that???

This diagram will give you 12v from 2 12v batteries hooked parallel.

Question on charging the two batteries hooked up parallel? If I hook my on board charger to the + and – leads of the battery on the right, will it charge both batteries?

just a related note…I have had my batterys hooked up like the prev pictures…i just bought a 3 bank cabelas pro angler on board charger and called to see if having batterys hooked up like that had any effect, they stated when using a 3 BANK charger, do not hook them together, now I will simply watch my garmin 250 volt reading or when I lose power I will simply switch tmotor terminals to second battery. by hooking the batts together the only thing you gain is not having to switch batts on the fly (good) but you are increasing voltage draw on the system (bad) again, it really doesnt mean much unless you have the 3 bank charger.just an fyi if you plan on using one with variable charge distribution.

Thanks Sgt Rock and PTC, I did that one before and should be more careful…but then again…maybe that’s why the old Minnkota 55 runs like 110!? I’ve change the diagram so I don’t confuse anyone.

thanks again!

If you only hook one charging bank up, it should still be fine, but you will not be able to hook up one bank/battery.

It is like having one battery with twice the capacity, so if it were “equally dead,” it would take twice as long to charge.