24/36 volt charging for Minn Kota

Luna Sea

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
May 20, 2002
Messages
1,069
Hi Guys,<br /><br />20 foot Lund with 120 hp Evinrude. Decided on Minn Kota bow mount Riptide trolling motor after doing my research. Think the 24 volt 74 lb thrust would do the job, but for an extra $60 (plus 3rd battery) I can get the 101 lb 36 volt. So I'm looking into battery chargers now. I see they sell them with 3 leads for the 3 batteries. My plan was to make up 2 harness's, pos to neg to pos and neg to pos to neg giving me the 36 volt series connection. My plan was to just loosen the wingnuts on the middle battery connections and switch from "series" to parallel and use one charger. Actually I have a solar panel too and was planning on hooking that up. Question is can I charge 3 batteries in this manner? Know the solar panel used to overcharge the battery on my big boat cause there wasn't much draw on the battery. Figure the 3 batteries hooked up parallel after a day's fishing would give the solar panel a good workout. Any opinions on charging 3 batteries off 1 charger? Or solar panel? Thanks. Happy fishin :D
 

Yepblaze

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Jun 1, 2001
Messages
1,686
Re: 24/36 volt charging for Minn Kota

Probably yes. You could disconnect the series wireing and rewire all the batteries parrallel but now you have to charge it with three times the amperage. I think that big old honkin trollin motor probaby pulls some amps! Definately more than a solar panel will even come near to maintaining. <br /><br />If you decide on 24 or 36 volt trolling system you really should rely on a charging system designed for it.
 
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