The red wire from battery one is the 12 volt and the red wire from battery two is the 24 volt. Make sure your plug is wired neg-neg and red to red battery two. The existing is a 12/24 volt setup as my old trolling motor uses this configuration and the one I'm putting on next is a straight 24 volt digital so all that is needed is the 24 volt set up.

That makes sense. So I need to ditch the 12v wire completely? Is it possible that this TM has been running on 12v this whole time? I thought with it being a 24v TM it wouldn't work on 12v.

Very well could

Don't ditch completely, just make sure the 24v post of the plug is connected to the 24v wire in your receptacle. If you are hard wiring the TM, then yes, you only need the one wire from batt 2. I have the same setup up front on my 2002 Triton, it was for
The 12/24 switchable TMs iirc.

Just make sure you check the voltage, I dropped a wire loop once and was only getting 13v out of a 24v post. Rod in the tube pushed a wire out of it's butt connector...

Ok. I will definitely do that this evening.


Thank y'all for the help. I'll bet this fixes the problem.

so it's only getting 12 volts.

On the Interscreen look up Jones Trolling Motor Services, John was good enough to put up diagrams of all these different hook ups and I believe even trouble shoot most of them. I think you are wired for 12/24 but you also you may have a jumper wire on that plug. So you have a bit of home work to do. I suspect that your wire size is 8 gauge at best and needs to be replaced with 6 ga. Dan

Ok, so this is the exact wiring setup I have. I tested all of the breakers, batteries and receptacles today.
The female end tested exactly as shown on this diagram of the plug. I had the ground, 12v and 24v reading from the different inserts of the female receptacle.

The system is definitely set up as a 12/24V system. The MinnKota Edge came with the 3 prong plug that fit this receptacle.

RJF sounds like you will be amazed by the power you'd newly wired TM will have. Technically a 24v trolling motor has 1/2 power on 12v but it feels exponentially less. Get your wires fixed and bet your happy w/your upgrade!

Well just because it has three prongs doesn't mean all three are used. Your TM should only have two wires make sure you land them on the neg and 24 volt pins and you will be good to go.

You will only have 2 wires going to your plug. I have a 36v system and it only has 2 wires going to do.

I once had a guy give me a MinKota trolling motor from a used boat he'd bought from a marine dealer. Dealer told him the trolling motor was bad. When I wired it up to 12V to test it, I got nothing. Removed the cover and realized it was a 24V motor. Took it out to my boat, plugged it into my receptacle and viola' it ran perfectly. MinKota will not even spin the prop on 12 volts.

Yep. I was messing with the wires yesterday testing the spin speed of the prop when I disconnected the 24v wire and tried to run it on 12v. It wouldn't spin the prop at all. I also disconnected the 12v wire and ran 24v only and it was running the same.

I guess I have had it hooked up right the whole time. I was really hoping that it was hooked up wrong because I'm pretty disappointed in this TM. I was talking to my dad yesterday and he said the old MG trolling motor was actually 65lb not a 55lb. For some reason I had 55lb in my head. I still think a 70lb TM should have more power than a 65lb. It is what it is. I'm going back to MG when I buy again.

RJF1423, I recently installed a 70# thrust MinKota Maxxam on my Bass Cat, it replaced a 70# Motorguide and is not as powerful as the MG was. That being said, I didn't replace for power. I wanted the MK because it is much quieter, has a shorter shaft and is supposedly more weedless that the MG. Power really isn't an issue for me. If it gets so windy and rough that I need a long shaft trolling motor with more thrust, then I'm putting that SOB back on the trailer. I fish for fun and relaxation, neither of which I find when standing on the nose of that Cat with waves breaking over my ankles. 30 years ago, I had that mindset, but no longer.

Not to over simplify but check to see if your trolling motor has a 12/24 switch and if it does make sure it is on 24. If you have a grass blade on the minn kota it will not generate as much power as a regular blade.