Just bought a used boat with a 24 V trolling motor, however only one 12 V battery is hooked up to it. There is another battery used for starting and accessories. Is there a way to wire these together to get 24 volts for the trolling motor and keep 12 V for the starter and accessories? Thanks in advance for the help

you tube 2 12v batteries to make 24volts batteries in series

It is best not to tie the starting battery inline with the trolling motor battery, just add another and wire them in series unless you have a 12/24 trolling motor

This!

You should have 3 batteries...2 linked in a series for a 24v trolling motor and 1 for starting / cranking & electronics.

I would if I had enough room for a third battery.

Just wire the two batteries in series to the trolling motor, like normal, then pick a battery out of the series and wire the 12’volt stuff to it.

It ain’t the best way, but it certainly is safe. No worries. Might get a lot of “noise” in the fish finder when you activate the trolling motor. Haha.

I’ve done this same thing once with a two man bass boat when I was a kid. Worked fine.

Sell your 24 volt trolling motor and get a 12V trolling motor. No need for a 3rd battery.

What kind of boat doesn't have room for a third battery?

I did this once in a tournament when a starting battery went bad. I got an extreme case of electrolysis. Trolling motor was grounding to the big motor. Turned my prop purple like it had been heated with a torch. Ate up the anode too. I know it can be done but it is very specific which battery you hook the starting leads to.

The reason your trolling motor started going to ground when you used it was because some part of the trolling motor was not properly grounded. It happened to me one day on Texoma. I came into a cove and started seeing fish jumping around the boat. They were all catfish. I could have scooped them up in a net.
When I looked a the Motorguide, the nose was not on tight. Thats the only thing I could come up with. It was still waterproof but didn't ground to the rest of the motor. There was a white dust along the seam. When I put it back together it never did it again.


I've run a 36 volt system on my Ranger 518 with a large starter dual purpose battery along with two group 27 batteries.
Did it for years and never had a starting problem. Today, with all the electronics tied into the starting battery that would not be a good choice.

The only issue I have with Steez's diagram is I would put the motor starter on the first battery in the string vs. the 2nd. That way, the motor is working between zero and 12 volts in that system. The ground for both the gas engine and the trolling motor would be the same point as well that way, might get less interference on your electronics that way.. assuming that they are connected to the first battery and not the 2nd.

BD