12/24 Volt trolling motor wiring question

[JGra]

I just picked up a older evinrude 12/24 volt trolling motor from a friend. He has had it in storge for some time now. This is an older model with the 12/24 volt switch on the foot pedal. Before I went to the trouble of installing it I wanted to make sure it workes. The cable has a 3 wire lead (red, black, white). I hooked up the red and black to a single car battery with the switch in 12 volt poistion and I get nothing out the the trolling motor. If I hook up the white and black and switched to 24 volt the motor turns very slow but does turn. I assume the white is the 24 volt side. Is this a proper way to test just function or do I have to hook all 3 wires with 2 batterys for the 24 set up for this motor to even work. He does not want but 50 bucks for it but he did say it worked when he took it off. It might not be worth it if it does not work. Could use some advise. Thanks

 

[JGra]

Re: 12/24 Volt trolling motor wiring question

Ok I have been doing some reading on this. It seems the white and black are for the 12 volt side. I just went out and checked it and hooked up the white and black to a battery and put the switch on 12 volt. The motor runs on all speeds but seems a little slow. It might be just alot quiter than I am used to. My old motorguide was kinda noisey. I ques I just need to see how it does with 2 batteries set up with the 24 volts. Will the performance be better on the 24 volts side? This is the first 12/24 volt trolling motor I have owned. Any thoughts?

 

[seabob4]

Re: 12/24 Volt trolling motor wiring question

Whether you have a 12V or 24V TM, it will still be supplied with only 2 leads, hot and ground.

Contact BRP and see if they have any old manuals archived that you can access.

 

[JGra]

Re: 12/24 Volt trolling motor wiring question

Who is BRP? do they have a website. I have 3 wires coming out of the trolling motor. You say only 2 are hooked up?

 

[seabob4]

Re: 12/24 Volt trolling motor wiring question

Who is BRP? do they have a website. I have 3 wires coming out of the trolling motor. You say only 2 are hooked up?

BRP...Bombadier Recreational Products. They have owned Evinrude for the past 10 years.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: 12/24 Volt trolling motor wiring question

SeaBob -- MotorGuide and others made a ton of trollers that could be powered and operated by either 12 or 24 volts. You could run on 12 volts for very slow trolling or switch to 24 for more power. These motors have three wires. Red-Black is 24 volts and white-black or Orange-black was for 12 volt operation. These motors required two batteries to use the dual feature, or if you wanted ONLY 12 volt operation you could use just one battery and in that case, only the white-black or orange-black wires were used (depending on which pair the motor had). Many boats (typically bass boats) were wired with two separate pairs of wires (4 total) running to a switch panel at the bow. This switch panel provided a 2x12V charge and 12/24 RUN settings. The switch allowed isolating the two batteries so they could be charged with a single charger through the troller plug. You are correct however that if a motor is a 12 volt only or a 24 volt only, that it would be fitted with just two wires.

As for testing this motor, you cannot test for full power on 24 volts with only one battery. That is still only 12 volts.. You need two batteries in series with + connected to Red and - connected to black. To test 12 volts, use one battery with the white and black (or orange and black). To use both functions, wire the white (or orange) wire to the POS post of the first battery (the one with the ground wire) in the 24 volt pair.