Need help with trolling motor install

[Landinlunkers]

Okay Guys, bear with me here. I'm pretty much a novice with this stuff, but I can't afford to pay someone else to do it, so I'm going to have to figure this out. I have a '96 Skeeter SS90. It came with a 12v MG motor, which I'm finally upgrading to a 24v Minn Kota. It's turning out to be a bigger job than I anicipated.

I've already been advised that I need at least 6 guage wire. The boat has 10 guage, so I'm going to have to change that. There are three wires there now, red, orange and black. With the 12v, the red and black are being used and the orange is not. I also need to add another battery. The way I understand it, you hook the postive of one battery to the negative of the other battery and hook the positive wire from the trolling motor to the remaing positve post and the negative to the remaining negative post. If that is correct, what is the third wire for?

I have a 2 bank charger. Do I need to hook that up differently, or just hook both batteries up the same as if I were running a 12v system?

Also, there is no way that I can bolt the mount on with the nuts, bolts and washers that were provided. There is no way, short of hacking a big hole in deck, that I can get the nuts under the deck. The four holes that are there from the Motor Guide mount match up perfectly with the new one, but they are really big due to the fact that the old mount was held on using those rubber anchors. I know that it would be best to bolt it on, but I just don't see how that is possible. The easiest thing to do would be to use the rubber anchors. I really want to do it right, but it seems that I don't have alot of options. Any other ideas?

Sorry for the long post :-[

Thanks!

[Skwerl]

I recently switched from a MG to a MK troller. Used the 3 rubber mounts that weren't trashed and then drilled 2 additional holes. The instructions say to use a minimum of 4 mounting bolts and preferably 6, but you have 8 mounting holes to choose from.

Can't help too much on the 24 volt thing, I'm still scarred from the paper clip/ wall outlet incident when I was 7.

[RatONaStick]

I can't help on the mounting, but to get 24 volts from two 12 volt batteries you need to wire them in series.

In other words, you need to connect a negative terminal on one battery to the others positive terminal. Then connect your power wires to the remaing positive and negative terminals.

[Landinlunkers]

Thanks guys!  I got 'er done.  I'm hitting the water tomorrow to try her out....can't wait!