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The Best Way to Provide 24-volt for a 24-volt Trolling Motor?
wrote:
I am thinking of adding a 24-volt trolling motor in the future. This
means I need to change the current batteries settings.
Currently, I have these two batteries:
(1) A 12-volt dual-purposes flood battery (group-24).
(2) A 12-volt deep-cycle flood battery (group-24) (the manufacturer
spec also says that it can also provide service for starting; sound
like its main purpose is to serve as a deep cycle battery; but I can
also use it for starting motor).
And I also have a battery switch that has 4 positions (1, 2, BOTH,
OFF).
Seem like one way is to add a third 12-volt deep cycle battery and run
this battery with the existing deep cycle battery in serie. This
should give me 24-volt -- just for the trolling motor. And I
"probably" doesn't need to change the existing battery switch. But I
am wondering if this will force me to put all the other electronic
equipments plus the motor-starting task to the one dual purpose
battery. This doesn't sound right. Am I missing something. Moreover,
does this also mean that I need to replace
The other way that may seem to work is to leave the existing batteries
and battery-switch alone and add a 24-volt battery (is there such a
thing?) just for the 24-volt trolling motor, and then use a
12/12/24-volt battery recharger. I guess this means I need to replace
the existing battery switch, right? Or should I leave the existing
battery switch alone and add a new ON/OFF switch just for the 24-volt
battery? The problem is: How does the alternator charge the 24-volt
battery anyway? Does this mean that I am better off replacing the
battery switch?
Is there any other better way? What's the best way?
Thanks in advance for any info.
Jay Chan
When you hook up 2 12-volt batteries to create a 24-volt battery, it is
best if the two batteries are the same brand, size, and age. Get two
new 12-volt deep cycle batteries for the job, or even consider 4 6-volt
golf cart batteries if you have the room. The golf cart batteries are
designed for the same type of service to which you will be subjecting
the batteries with a trolling motor- repeated deep disharges and
recharges. Otherwise, lean toward actual "deep cycle" rather than combo
duty batteries. You can always use a deep cycle to start an engine (if
it is rated for enough CCA), but you can't rely on a starting battery
to repeatedly discharge deeply and then recharge without rapidly losing
efficiency or suffering an internal short.
If you leave the dock with a fully charged trolling motor battery, it's
unlikely that you will need to recharge it during a few hours of
fishing. Unless you're going to be away from shorepower for days at a
time, why even worry about recharging the trolling battery from the
alternator? Get a decent marine batter charger dedicated to the
trolling battery and recharge at the dock or back home in the garage.
Trying to charge 12-volt and 24-volt batteries at the same time from a
single alternator would be pretty tricky. I always overdo everything,
but if that were my problem I'd add a second, 24-volt alternator and
keep the two systems separate.
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