This and That Observations

[SkunkedAgain]

Skunkedagain!  Is your Terrova a 12V or a 24V motor??  NOt sure I know what type of boat you have though.  You should be able to find a wiring diagram for your boat on the internet.  The manual for your Terrova should also have a diagram to show how to set it up !!

My motor is a 24 Volt and my boat is an older Tracker Targa... I opened everything up and it appears there are four separate wires that go from back to front. I decided to use one pair to supply my 24 volts to the motor.  It seemed to work pretty well, except I need a new battery for the big motor so I can use my deep cycle pair for the electric. That motor really pulls the boat nice, but I'm going to have to learn how to drive it in manual mode... I about took out the docks while I was trying to learn how it works... Glad i wasn't at too busy of a ramp... Thanks for the interest... Jeff

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Jeff, it's possible that the second set of wires went to a backup battery, so if one went dead they could just switch over to the second battery. You should be able to figure it out just by finding where the two sets of wires run to. You said at least one set runs to the back, if you have both sets back in the back, maybe one was hooked to the main starting battery and the second was hooked to the trolling motor battery. If you don't find both sets of wires back there, try looking for a hole in the center area of the boat, maybe under the left of right console or even right in the center, where it steps up to the bow area of the boat. They could have taken the battery out and pushed the wires back down into the hole where the wires were run up from.

Hey Curt, I think I explained this in my last reply, but I do have two sets of wires and I did some modifications to them.  I cut the red and black wire off the connector and wired them into my new quick disconnect plug... It seemed to work for me... Thanks for the tips.. Jeff

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I have a 1996 Bayliner it sounds like mine was wired the same as yours. I put a 24 volt Minn Kota power drive on my boat. They recommend 6 gage wire going from the batteries to the motor. The 2 wires put together as one was bigger than the 6 gage wire so I figured I'd be ok. WRONG!! I melted the wires inside the motor and fried the circuit board. Minn Kota said to rewire it with 6 gage wire and I haven't had a problem since.

Wow so now you're making me nervous, I'm not sure what gauge my wire is, it's pretty heavy duty, but I better check and see what it is.  I think the chart said to use 8 gauge on my motor for lengths less than 20' and my boat is 18' with not much added to reach the battery, I figured 8 gauge would be okay...  The QD connection was just verily big enough to allow the wires to fit in the socket, so I probably can't use bigger wire without getting a different connector and this was rated for 24 volt 60 Amps so I think it's a right one.  But you bring up a really important issue I better check into before I fry something... Thanks for the heads up... Jeff

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Boats on Mantua yesterday, Hyrum is really stained with the run off coming in, pig has open water along the dam. Quite the crowd at Willard in the north marina when I went by. Saw a pic of Newton and it looked to be way up.

I heard some good stories about Mantua over the weekend... Almost makes me want to take my toon for a float... Thanks for the update Alan, hope your trip today to Willard will be a good one... Later Jeff

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Jeff, it's possible that the second set of wires went to a backup battery, so if one went dead they could just switch over to the second battery. You should be able to figure it out just by finding where the two sets of wires run to. You said at least one set runs to the back, if you have both sets back in the back, maybe one was hooked to the main starting battery and the second was hooked to the trolling motor battery. If you don't find both sets of wires back there, try looking for a hole in the center area of the boat, maybe under the left of right console or even right in the center, where it steps up to the bow area of the boat. They could have taken the battery out and pushed the wires back down into the hole where the wires were run up from.

I agree, a back up battery makes sense.  My boat is a 2001 so a little newer and the wire that was run from the back to the front was way too small.  It did not fry wires but sure lost a lot of battery power.  I rewired my boat to have a starting battery in the back and two batteries at the passenger center console to run the 24 volt trolling motor. 

The wire was stiff, but I got some multistrand 2 gage for the trolling motor, 6 gage for the starting motor, ran wires from my new on board charger to the three batteries.  So, 6 wires from the charger, two to the starting motor, two to to each trolling battery (which are hooked up in series for the trolling motor).  Charger hooked in parallel.  

As you can see, there can be lots of wires, depending on what the boat was wired for originally.  Perhaps the best way is to get a multimeter, set on OHMS, with long long leads.  Disconnect the battery(s) and trace the wires down.  Diagram the wires and then plan on a "New Plan".  If you can utilize the existing wires, great, if not, best to get new wires and work from there.

I am a bit toooooo old to climb around a boat and pull wire (found that out recently) but PM me with the wiring diagram and perhaps, just perhaps, I can help.

I"m actually in pretty good shape with the wiring on these batteries as far as lack of complication, it's four wires from front to back and nothing in between.  Now I just need to make sure I have adequate sized wires so I don't burn my boat down... Once I decide how I'm going to do this I'll have to get an on board charger set up.  I'll have 3 batteries, does anyone have a good charger recommendation, and can this same charger be used for LiFePO batteries?  I think when this set of batteries bites the dust, I'm going to try saving up and changing over to Lithium... I love them for all my ice gear, so I think that's the direction I want to go, but they sure are expensive, but sounds like they will pay that back over a longer lifetime... Man I sure wish I had lots of money, I'd sure be good at spending it... Later Jeff