wiring main battery

[billy sharp]

I have a two battery 12/24 volt motor guide trolling motor hooked up in series..Is there any way I can hook the positive/ negative terminals of the main outboard battery to the trolling motor batteries w/o changing the trolling motor hook up for charging while underway with the main motor

 

[alldodge]

I think you want to charge all the batteries from your OB motor while running. While there is a method by which something could be done, I would suggest not doing anything. Reason behind it, is an OB in most cases does not put out enough power to charge much more then one battery at a time.

My opinion
Others should be along shortly

 

[wrench 3]

I'm on board with AllDodge on this one. I've ran into house boats that have had repetitive failures with the outboards charging system from trying to charge the house batteries.

 

[NYBo]

Modern outboards have fairly powerful charging systems, so that's not necessarily the biggest problem. The problem is that the trolling motor batteries are hooked up in series. They would need to be hooked up in parallel to charge them from the outboard, and they can't be wired both ways at the same time..

 

[bruceb58]

There are devices you can buy that will convert a 12V alternator output to 2 isolated 12V outputs you can hook to your batteries without any rewiring of the batteries. No need to put them in parallel.

The alternator on my outboard puts out only 25A at 5000RPM so you aren't going to charge very much unless you are going to be running multiple hours.

Here is one of these devices. It can connect to two 12V batteries in series but its total output is 20A max..
http://www.amazon.com/MinnKota-MK-2-.../dp/B001PTHKJY
http://www.minnkotamotors.com/WorkAr...t.aspx?id=2904