Battery questions

[southtexasbassin]

Hello guys!  Im looking for you all's advice.  I have a 54# motorguide that runs on a 12 volt battery.  I have been fishing 6 hours days and tend to leave when my trolling motor battery gives out.  My question is can I run my motorguide on two batteries in series?  24 volts?    Will it effect it in any way?  My boat has two batteries one for the motorguide and one for cranking.  I have an nitro x5 starter boat.  Thanks for the responses....

[jim payne]

You can hook two batteries together positive to positive and negative to negative and you will be fine and it is called parellel not series.

[J Francho]

You'll probably ruin your TM if you run it at 24V, maybe even start a fire. Here is a link that explains how to wire them: http://www.zbattery.com/Connecting-Batteries-in-Series-or-Parallel.

[southtexasbassin]

thanks for the information. Just what I needed to know. I have another question now. Would I need to get another battery charger? I have a two bank 4 amp battery charger.

[J Francho]

Make sure its a 12V charger

[shuddyssoup]

Part of the problem is the charger. The larger the better for deep cycle batteries. IF you can get a ten amp or even bigger it would make the batteries last longer. But then, how good is the wiring, the awg of the wire and connections too. I have a problem with running two in parallel because if one goes bad it takes the other with it. It would be better to have an a/b switch and when one goes down swap to the other. just remember to charge both ...

[shuddyssoup]

One other thing. How big is your battery ? A 24/27/ 31 series. The bigger the battery the longer you can run ... I run two 31's on a 24 volt system and wouldn't have it any other way. But ... I have room for them.

[southtexasbassin]

I have a 27 interstate deep cycle battery. And a 24 Deep cranking. I was looking at my battery charger and I see several wires that are not being used. I was also looking at the model of the charger that I have and I have a quest 8 amp 4/4 battery charger with alternator module. Does this mean the cranking battery is attached to the alternator module and the deep cycle is attached to one of the banks, leaving me with an extra bank for a new batter? I have attached a pic of the battery charger and wires that are not being used. Colors are brown, green yellow, and blue.

[shuddyssoup]

I'm not familiar with the charger you talked about with the alternator module. If it does run off the alternator there should be more wires. Of course one for the ac plug and there should be some more going to the motor. The charger leaves a little to be desired in the amp department though. It will charge the batteries fine, it's just gonna take longer than a 10 amp will and may cause premature battery failure. Meaning it might last 3/4 of the life one charged with a 10 would. A 31 series would give you more capacity and keep you on the water longer but I would definitely recomend a higher amp rating charger. If yoiu run that battery down and fish the next day, it may not completely charge the next day. 

[Catt]

Nitro X-5 approximate weight: 2360

26 gallons of gas @ 6.216 lbs per gallon = 161.616

Weight less persons & tackle: 2521.62 lbs 

Weight with 2 persons & tackle: 3000 lbs plus

Problem: 54 pound thrust trolling motor is too small resulting in poor battery performance

Solution: up grade trolling motor to at least 70 pound thrust 24 volt