I recently installed a 65lb 12/24volt MInnKota Maxxum. The white wire was cut so I rigged it straight 24 volt. Ran Pos. wire to BATT 1, Neg. wire to BATT 2, and put jumper connecting batteries.

Problem is motor will not run when foot pedal is selected to 24v. It only runs when switched to 12volts.

Am I running off both batteries?

Thanks

BUMP - Trying to figure out if I'm running on 12 or 24 volts. They are new batteries and I don't want to drain just one of them

Probably need to match 24v plug wire to 24v receptacle wire. Sending a pm.

sounds like you have the positive wire hooked to the 12 volt side of the switch.

but, what "white" wire are you talking about? on the boat side of the switch should be a red(12v) and orange(24) and one black wire for ground.

make sure your hooked up right.

How to connect a battery in Series?
The positive terminal of the first battery is connected to the negative terminal of the second battery, the positive terminal of the second is connected to the negative of the third, etc. The voltage of the assembled battery is the sum of the battery voltages of the individual batteries. So the batteries are connected: + to - to + to - to + to -, etc. The capacity of the battery is unchanged.


pos from trolling motor to pos of batt 1.
neg from trolling motor to neg of batt 2.
jumper between pos and neg of the two batt.

Thanks for all the help guys. The batteries were correctly wired for 24 volts. The trolling motor and receptacle were correctly wired as well.

Think the problem was with the 12/24 volt switch (as Steve suggested). There were three wires coming out of the trolling motor (RED,WHITE, BLACK). The previous owner(s) had cut the white wire off at the TM plug (cut shorter than RED & BLACK). Don't know whether he was trying to run straight 12 or 24.

I wanted to run straight 24 (NOT 12/24) so I left the white wire short and only hooked the RED & BLACK wires. Problem was motor would only run when the foot pedal was clicked on 12volt (even though receptacle was getting 24volts from batteries).

I disconnected the white wire from the 12/24 switch (since it was disconnected from the TM) and moved the red wire to where the white wire was connected. Trolling motor now works when foot pedal is switched to 24volt.

Since the boat was never wired for 12/24, I'm assuming it was drawing 24 volts even when TM switch was set on 12volts. I plan on taking it out and running it hard tomorrow. I'll verify when charging that both batteries were being drained.

Thanks again for everyone's input. Especially 'H-D Dad' -who let me call him while he was out fishing. Hope you see your picture on the forum with a GIANT before the end of your trip.

I got multimeter and my life got better....