Adding A Trolling Motor Battery

[Zoff]

I have a Stratros 176XT with a 12V trolling motor system. I am seriously buring through my trolling battery as the day goes on. I have to be conservative. I guess it is because my front Humminbird is also hooked to that system. I want to add a second battery for the "in case" scenario. There is just enough room in the compartment for another battery. Is there a kit or something that I can get to just add it in? Something with a switch (wires and tray, too) to go back and forth between the two batteries so I do not have to replace my 12V with a 24V at this time?

[lefty]

wire it in series. positive to positive and neg to neg. no switch needed.

[NBR]

Positive to Positive and negative to negative is correct but that is parallel!. Parallel you increase the run time available series you add the voltage so you woul zap your 12v TM.

[scbassin]

If the battery that you already have is more than a year old I would not hook them together for the older one will draw the newer one down. Get a Perko switch so you can select one battery or the other or even both if you need to.

[Zoff]

Yeah... the parallel I knew... 12V+12V=24V or fried motor. Perko switch? Which model? Was hoping for a "kit" lol

[ww2farmer]

Hook the graph to your cranking battery. I run two graphs, livewell pump,and any other elec. accessories off my group 24 cranking battery for full 8+ hour tournaments and have never had any issues. I use a Walmart Everstart dual purpose cranking/deep cycle, and then have 2 dedicated deep cycle ( 1 one I had a 12V system) just for the TM and TM only.

[Zoff]

Looking at the Perko 2 battery setup... when hooking up the charger, will the connection to the ground from one battery to the other affect the chargingprocess? I guess the question... I will add a two bank charger. How will that hook up? How will it hook up?

[Zoff]

I spoke with my boat guy and he said parallel the batteries. Use the same battery and it would not mutiply the voltage and should up my run time.

This is what he said:

As long as you wire it pos. to pos. and neg. to neg. all it will do is strengthen the 12 volts that you are getting at the Trolling motor. The second battery will act as a reserve for the main battery and it will be able to send 12 volts for a much longer period of time. You would have to rewire both batteries in succession before you would have 24 volts , which means you would have to run a jumper wire from pos. to neg. between the two batteries. You dont have to worry about that because you are going pos. to pos. and neg. to neg. So it will not do any harm to the trolling motor. If you need anything at all feel free to drop me an e-mail anytime or give me a call at XXX-XXX-XXXX. Have a great day !!!!

[Jig Man]

Yes prallel them and it will be close to double reserve amp time. When you charge, hook the charger to battery 1 and leave them hooked together. It will charge them both but take a long time unless you have a big charger.

[Zoff]

Yes prallel them and it will be close to double reserve amp time. When you charge, hook the charger to battery 1 and leave them hooked together. It will charge them both but take a long time unless you have a big charger.

Yup... that's what I was hoping. I plan on getting a 2 bank charger though. Guess it won't hurt for them to be hooked together.

[Long Mike]

Zoff, you are correct. Attaching one bank to each of the batteries will work just fine. As a suggestion, why not pick up a three bank charger and charge your cranking battery at the same time.

[Zoff]

Zoff, you are correct. Attaching one bank to each of the batteries will work just fine. As a suggestion, why not pick up a three bank charger and charge your cranking battery at the same time.

I have been considering that. I actually already have a MK 2 bank charger but a 3 would be the better choice.

[Way2slow]

In parallel, I would not worry about any kind of swithing. While it's recommend the batteries be the same, it's not necessary in parallel (it is a must when in series). I parallel, the batteries only see the voltage of each battery and only supplies the current to support that voltage. In series, both batteries see the same current. If one battery is a lot stronger than the other, it overloads and damages the weaker battery. Sometimes to the point it will actually start boiling the electrolite.

You will also get more run time in parallel vesus trying to run one down and then switching to the other. In parallel, you are cutting the current draw as much as in half, (with matching batteries). Doing this, increases the Ah capacity under a load, thus giving you a longer run time.