Trolling motor wiring… correct???

I switched from a 12v 55# AP to a 24v 74# Maxxum this spring. She runs fine… but I’m not seeing much of a power increase as I had hoped. I had my marine guy do the install over the winter… he said that he has installed plenty of these… so I figured he knew what he was doing.

Anyways, I’ve included some pics of the wiring. Everything from the batteries to the 12/24 receptacle is fine. I added the + & – to the pic, showing what goes in where. Like I said, that seems fine. The question I’m having is about the plug itself… first one is that its labled 12v, not the 12/24v. Secondly, once opening up the plug itself, it appears to be rigged for 12v only, due to the jumpers. I’m not an electical expert by any means… but this just seems odd. The kicker is that I can completely disconnect one battery from all this, and it runs EXACTLY the same as it does with both. WTF????????? Anybody have any advice???

The 1st pic is of the plug receptacle where the wiring for both batteries meet.

the 2nd is the outside of the plug… showing its 12v????

and the 3rd is the inside of the plug

I just finished wiring a Minn Kota 65AP 24V. The plug was very similar and it did not matter whether I was using 12 or 24 volts, it was wired the same way.

However, there is no way I can figure that you can disconnect a battery in series and still get power. It sounds kinda like they are hooked up in parallel and you are only getting 12V.

From the motor there should be a red + wire with a 40amp (or whatever) breaker to the + of the first battery. The first battery’s – should run to the second battery’s +, and the second battery’s – should be a black wire running back to the motor.

Hope that helps,

Dave

Pick up a cheap volt meter at Fleet Farm $8-10 and read the output. You’ll have your answer. Everyone with a boat and batteries and trailers etc should have one of these.

Problem solved! It was the plug… and it WAS a 12v one. Got the BLACK Marinco 12/24v one last night. She sounds like an airplane now.