jessejames556

Went out last night, the trolling motor and new batteries are running good..Thanks for the responses guys. My anchor lights have a pretty heavy draw on the starting battery when on, but other than that everything seems to be running fine... Now I know how to check amp draw and know my way around a multimeter too, so I'm glad I did it.

Yeah I kinda figured. I have a 3 bank and all are hooked up to each individual battery. Like you said, I'll just run a 24..I don't feel like buying a new fuse for the orange wire so I'll leave it disconnected and will just manually rewire for a 12 if it comes down to it. The switch is nice to have but I wont use it.

From what I'm reading on another forum, I can just use 2 wires from the batteries up to the TM, one red from the + on one battery and a black from the - on the other. Then run a jumper between the remaining - and +. This puts the batteries in series and creates a straight 24Vs at the other end. I don't see any benefit to using the 12 volt feature of the 12/24 switch, as it would just run one battery down unequal to the others.... Do you all concur or am I misunderstanding that? I ask so many questions because I am not about to ruin $400.00 in new batteries on a stupid mistake that could have been avoided.

Ok I have everything hooked up now but I'm +1 on wires right now....I have a 24 volt series hooked up to my motorguide 12/24 volt TM..THERE IS a 12/24 volt switch on the pedal of the TM. I have the black and red hooked up right now but I still have an orange wire disconnected. My boat owner's manual seems to indicate that: the red and black wires run to Battery #1 of the 24 volt series while the orange wire connects to the positive terminal of Battery two. A white jumper cable connects the positive terminal of battery #1 to the negative terminal of battery #2... I'd just shut up and go with this but the owner's manual has some poorly worded sentences in that section that add to the confusion but what I wrote above is basically what it is saying......Is this the correct wiring setup for a 12/24 volt TM equipped with voltage switch while attached to 24 volt series? Thanks EDIT: All three wires (Red Black Orange) are running from the trolling motor. The previous owner had the orange wire disconnected for some reason.

Well hopefully I'll notice an increase in power when I get these new batteries in and get everything re-wired to the correct batteries. Slonezp, in your experience, does having all electronics/lights/etc. hooked up to the starting battery run the battery low? I know you guys are saying the only thing I should have hooked up to the TM batteries is the TM, but I'm a little nervous that I'll go out with the new set up and end up with a dead starting battery. I should mention that I only have essential nav/anchor lighting, one lower end model graph, and the livewell pump/bilge pump/aerator. Not a heavy load compared to others, but it still makes me nervous

EDIT: So if the previous owner had the batteries set up in parallel but had the TM switch at 24v instead of 12v, what would that do? Because I believe that is what happened.

Another set of questions: my trolling motor is an old 50lb motorguide..it has a 12v/24v switch..I assume that running two 12 volt batteries in series will have a 24 v output, while running them in parallel has a 12v output 1. Am I assuming correct? 2. Would that switch correlate with the aforementioned setups and their outputs? 3. What is the benefit of running them in parallel? In a series?

I made sure to buy from a certified optima dealer, so hopefully that means something.

Thank you, optima_Jim. I will try those aforementioned tests this week and will hurry up and order new batteries before my next trip out..i found some optimas on amazon new for a decent price so I may just stay faithful to optima.

By the way, amp hour on the Optima I am looking at (D34M) is "55 Ah (C/20)".

Well if you owned Optimas before and are happy with everstarts now, I definitely take your opinion into consideration...I really don't want to pay for two Optimas right now..BPS deep cycles are only $30-40 cheaper than the Optimas so I am leaning towards the everstarts cheap at Walmart right now. Even if I have to replace them in two years, it beats $500+ on two batteries for maybe four years. Also, I'm still concerned I may have a ghost draw and don't want to kill two brand new Optimas over that. I'll try to find it before I put in any new batteries, but just in case...

Now when I looked at the everstarts, the reserve capacity rating is "114 minutes @ 1 A"..The Optima I'm comparing it to has a reserve capacity of "120 minutes (25 amp discharge)"...Are they being measured on the same scale? It seems to me that the Optima would crush the everstart on quality run time because it has a higher reserve capacity on a much larger discharge (unless I'm wrong in assuming the everstart is being measure on a 1 amp discharge scale as opposed to the Optima's 25 amp discharge scale)...Hope that makes sense...

James14, Just curious, did you replace your batteries with new optimas? I'm shopping around right now..the reserve rating on the optimas look good, but I'm wondering if there is better out there for the price

very informative, thank you. I will definitely buy a voltmeter. It sounds like my batteries are about at the same levels that yours were when you replaced them..i just hope I don't have to get a new charger as well.

looks good, mike. I may have to copy your outrigger setup on my canoe, i could use that while fighting the wakes at the lake.

Well according to optima's website, their blue top #24/#34 batteries are deep cycle and good for use on a trolling motor..but they try to sell it as a multi purpose battery that is equally useful for cranking up a motor...which makes me leery because, the way I understand it, deep cycle batteries should be used only for electronics and trolling motors..slow drain, not the sudden high volt cranking of an engine starting.

Even if you don't know anyone that owns a Lowe, you can still cross reference with other boat owners. Everything on that boat can be found on other boat makes and models. With some TLC you can really up the quality on just about anything, even if it has some inherent problems. I should know, I've owned a Dodge pickup for years.

How can you tell if the switch is operational based on the number of wires?

^ This...I have a bias against loans if I can avoid them, so I may not be the person to talk to on this...I'd sooner take a junker and know that I own it 100% than have a flashy new boat/truck/whatever. I was just at bps the other day admiring all the boats. I'm sure they have some quality boats there, but I look at the price tag and remind myself why I bought used. Used boats will require some added maintenance and a little extra TLC, but it's a much better investment, IMO. If you don't mind the thought of losing a couple thousand after towing the boat off the lot, or if you can afford that- then go for it. I'll still check out your rig and *** you as you fly by me...but there is something to be said about a good buy on a used boat.

Hey guys, I'm fishing out of Southwest Ohio. I consider Rocky Fork Lake to be my home lake. I make it out to Paint Creek every now and then..Paint creek is literally a 5 minute drive from Rocky Fork. I prefer Rocky Fork, which has seen some good numbers and sizes in LM Bass lately, though I worry that all this fishing pressure from constant tournaments may slow things down. I also have a .5 acre give or take pond about 5 minutes away from both of the aforementioned lakes. I see some of you are familiar with Alum..I may try that out soon. Has anyone ever heard of/fished the AEP lakes/ponds in central Ohio? I hear they are great, especially the ones off the beaten path that see next to no fishing pressure. I usually make several weekend trips a year to multiple lakes in Tennessee (Dale Hollow, Norris, Douglas Lake) and have a little experience on some Kentucky lakes too (Harringtion, Northern Dale Hollow). I never have headed north for fishing, but would like to change that soon.

I second that, I just pulled my personal best out of a pond that turned over approx. two years ago. I never wasted time on the pond after the turnover. I ended up seeing a friend there fishing the other day and stopped by and threw in a shaky head while I talked to him. Two casts in I set the hook and land a nice bass as far as Ohio pond bass go. I guarantee that, had it not been for that turnover, that bass would have never gotten to that size. Mother nature has a way of regulating itself...I have pulled out two more bass over 2 lbs since then after realizing that pond still held fish.

I'm going to have to look up how to run them in a series as opposed to parallel. My tm has a 12v/24v switch but I want to keep it at 24v when I switch everything over and install the new batteries

I only have one fish finder at this time and the 50 lb tm...im extremely conservative with battery use and unplug the tm and the fish finder when not in immediate use. I dont have a power pole or stereo either.. So my setup should really be great in terms of extended battery use on the water.. My only issue is the aforementioned connection issue with my fish finder being hooked up to the tm batteries..other than that it sounds like I have bad batteries with the potential of a ghost draw I notice that the voltage according to my fish finder drops .2 volts typically while the tm is engaged on the highest setting. It can be slow to recover too.. I definitely will switch my source setup immediately. Unfortunately I store my boat an hour away from home by the lake so some of these diagnostic tests requiring monitoring are near impossible. I also have a 6 hour trip to Tenn. Coming up for a weekend of fishing, so I need to get these batteries in decent enough shape to last two days of fishing here soon. I may just break down and buy new ones so I don't blow the trip.

Ok, I wasn't sure if it was ok to have the fish finder on the starting battery. I'll do that. yes I do unplug the trolling motor when not in use. I hope to just replace my TM batteries.. I assume that with new batteries and swapping my electronics, my charger will be able to get the job done.