I have a 71 lb, 24 volt Motorguide trolling motor. Currently, I have two sets of battery connections going to the TM...one positive and one negative each going to my two Optimas.

Of course, I also have a jumper going from the negative on one battery to the positive on the other. I also have a battery charger connected to the positive on one and the negative on the other battery.

My question has to do with the connections going directly to the trolling motor itself. In his boat, my fishing partner has a total of two wires going to the TM...one connected to the negative of one battery, the other to the positive of the other battery.

Is one setup better than the other? Are there advantages to having two sets of TM wires, with + and - going to each battery...or a total of only two wires, one + and one - ?

One more question. I'm not convinced that my on-board two bank charger is giving a good charge to both TM batteries, so I wanted to hook up a new free standing charger that shows the percentage a battery is charged to each battery. Do I need to unhook the positive lead going to the trolling motor before charging with this free standing charger? How about the wires going to the on-board charger? Do I need to disconnect them?

I don't want to short anything out or burn anything up.

Your wiring gives you the ability to select "12V" if you have a 12/24 motor - it's the only difference between yours and your partners.

What you have there is a single 24V bank. Most two-bank chargers will charge two 12V banks individually - if you're sure you have a 24V charger you can hook it up without disconnecting the t/m - not sure about the other charger, best check the manual.

For about $15 bucks you can get a good hydrometer at a car parts store & check the condition of your batteries.

Really good stuff about batteries:
http://www.uuhome.de/william.darden/

Thanks, jtexas. I never disconnect the TM leads when I charge using the onboard charger, but I'm not sure about the other charger.

Razor, check your charger. if it is a fairly new two bank charger it should tell you if you got something wrong. I have a 12v two bank charger hooked up to my 24v system. I never disconnect anything. It will charge each battery. just make sure you terminals are clean, if not one battery might get charged and the other one might not. Just had that problem today.

You really shouldn't have a jumper wire connecting the two batteries if you have a four wire system. The jumper is in the plug. You don't need to disconect anything if you wire it without the jumper.