trolling motor wiring

[billy sharp]

I recently bought a used bass tracker with a motor guide trolling motor. As I was inspecting the wiring hooked up to the dual batteries I noticed the battery posts were positioned where the positive and negative posts were adjacent to each other with a wire to the positive and a wire hooked to the negative running under the platform and looks like to the trolling motor to the trolling motor. On the other end of the two batteries there is a wire hooked from the positive of one post to the negative post. Can someone shed any light on this and is it hooked up right and if so would I have to charge the batteries one at a time

 

[Barnacle_Bill]

What lb thrust and model is the TM? If I am reading correctly it sounds like you have a 24V motor and the batteries are wired in series. If that is the case you would have to charge the batteries 1 at a time. A way around this (and much better) is to buy an on-board charger. Plug it in as soon as you get back from fishing and leave it plugged in until time to go again.

 

[Silvertip]

Batteries wired in series have the positive of one battery connected to the negative of the other battery. Then the remaining positive and negative posts have the two wires running to the motor. This is a 24 volt system. Batteries wired in parallel have the positive on each battery wired together and the negative on each battery wired together. Then a pair of positive and negative wires run to the trolling motor. This is a 12 volt system and the batteries can be charged at the same time. A 24 volt system can have both batteries charged at the same time provided you use a two-bank charger. Make sure there is a pair of outputs for each battery. If there is just one negative and two positives then that charger cannot be used.

 

[billy sharp]

I want to thank everyone for your help==after reading both answers and relooking at my system it will be a 24 volt system--now I just have to figure out the proper charger to buy and how to hook up the leads--thanks again and if anyone has the model/name of a charger that will work please pass it on

 

[Silvertip]

You buy a two bank (two output) smart charger. It will have a pair of leads (pos and neg) that go to one battery and another pair that goes to the second battery. Plug in the ac cord and walk away. They are automatic and can be left on indefinitely starting and stopping as the battery deems necessary. You want a charger with a minimum 5 amps per bank but 6, 8, or 10 amps would be better. Anything above that gets spendy. It all depends on the thickness of your wallet and what sort of charge time you need.