I just installed a new MinN Kota 45# Edge trolling motor. It came with a free Minn Kota MK106 On Board charger (single bank). I plan on adding a second battery and hooking them up parrallel (pos to pos and neg to neg). Is it a good idea to connect the batteries this way? Or should I leave one battery to crank to motor and one for the TM? Also if I do hook them up parallel can I use the single bank charger to charge both batteries at once? Boat is a 84 Tracker TX-17.

You should keep the cranking battery and the trolling motor battery seperate. You can hook them parallel to charge them but if your charger is not 10 amps or above it may take a very long time.

If your cranking battery doesn't have a bunch of accessories running it won't need much of a charge most of the time.

Thanks, decided to run batteries separate. Gonna get a everstart for the trolling motor and use the charger on that, I know it's slow but it was free.