My current motorguide tour series has 2 wires coming from unit. However at the  end it has been soldered to a three wire plug.  Im going to a 24 volt set up for it but can someone explain what I will do with the orange wire ( which is the third wire from the plug that comes to  the back of the boat) Do I need two circuit breakers now? I dug out the orange wire  in the back and it has a ring terminal with a old rusted circuit breaker on it but it wasnt hooked to anything?  Kinda lost here and could use some help. Thanks, Lee

You only need 2 wires. The 3rd was wired for a 12/24v setup

I would add a circuit breaker to the positive wire and connect it to battery 1. Next make your jumper to run from battery 1 negative to battery 2 positive. Now your negative wire coming from up front can run to battery 2s negative post.  Minn Kota makes some good circuit breakers but so do others.

Speaking of circuit protection, you can spend $10 on a marine circuit breaker or $60 on a Minn Kota circuit breaker. I have a MK in my current boat and a $10 breaker in the last boat which, tripped from over amping, but not before wires had melted and a plug and receptacle fused together. Had the circuit breaker not tripped, I could have had a fire in the boat.   .

On 8/8/2016 at 4:58 PM, fishnkamp said:

I would add a circuit breaker to the positive wire and connect it to battery 1. Next make your jumper to run from battery 1 negative to battery 2 positive. Now your negative wire coming from up front can run to battery 2s negative post.  Minn Kota makes some good circuit breakers but so do others.

 

On 8/8/2016 at 5:49 PM, slonezp said:

Speaking of circuit protection, you can spend $10 on a marine circuit breaker or $60 on a Minn Kota circuit breaker. I have a MK in my current boat and a $10 breaker in the last boat which, tripped from over amping, but not before wires had melted and a plug and receptacle fused together. Had the circuit breaker not tripped, I could have had a fire in the boat.   .

I have a brand new minn kota circuit breaker for the positive already. So can I safely just terminate the 3rd or orange wire in this instance by capping it off?

Is this where I need to be?

You could cut it off on both ends I would put a piece of heat shrink tube on it. I would go get a new plug and install it then i would add heat shrink over the connections. I do not fool around with connections. I like to solder and heat shrink wires and then put a bigger piece of heat shrink over the two wires and heat shrink them all together, It is extra work once and not unreliable multiple times!

18 minutes ago, fishnkamp said:

You could cut it off on both ends I would put a piece of heat shrink tube on it. I would go get a new plug and install it then i would add heat shrink over the connections. I do not fool around with connections. I like to solder and heat shrink wires and then put a bigger piece of heat shrink over the two wires and heat shrink them all together, It is extra work once and not unreliable multiple times!

Thanks for the help Fish, Im going to do just that.  So minus that orange wire in the diagram, It will wire like the picture shows then.  Thanks again for the help from Slonezp as well.

Just make the physical jumper wire, going between the batteries, big enough. I would get some *** or bigger wire and some good solder on terminal connectors. Again use some heat shrink tube to shield the connection so nothing can arc across the terminals unless your batteries are in battery boxes rather than just battery trays.