Trolling motor wiring

The boat I just bought has a 24v Powerdrive trolling motor. The batteries were pretty much dead. I bought some new batteries and need to hook them back up. I am pretty positive the previous owner did not have it wired correctly. The front of the boat has a 3 prong 12/24v receptacle. The 3 wires coming into the battery compartment are 1 red, 1 black and 1 oarnge. How do I hook it properly? Thanks!

check minn kota’s website, I’d bet they have a wiring diagram you can refer to for their recommended 24Volt setup.

are you sure you don’t have 1 red 2 black and 1 orange?

here is a diagram, hope it helps. I did mine by myself and I am not very handy or familiar with wiring things but it wasnt hard at all!

here is a different one and I think this one is better for your setup; red to pos on battery #1, battery #1 neg connect to battery #2 pos and connect orange to that pos, and then the black from #2 battery to switch with black wire. Make sure you have fuses in there so you don’t burn anything up! You can fuse both the red and orange.

Don’t forget to add a circuit breaker in there.
If you run aground or get it full of weeds it will trip it and save the motor. It could also start a fire if you keep it running if you dont have one……..

Quote:

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Don’t forget to add a circuit breaker in there.
If you run aground or get it full of weeds it will trip it and save the motor. It could also start a fire if you keep it running if you dont have one……..

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Thanks guys! Do you need a circuit breaker if there are inline fuses?

Is the orange wire the 24 volt lead?

If you don’t need the 12v up front, just run it as straight 24v.

-J.

Just leave the red wire unhooked off the battery and follow the diagram on previous post. Run the orange to one positive of one battery and the black to the negative of the second battery, then jump the positive to the negative of the terminals that do not have any wires on them.Use a 60 amp breaker on the orange wire. Try and get the resetable kind. Fleet Farm has them I believe. Cut those glass fuse holders right off and throw them as far as you can. They are famous for either breaking the inline glass fuse or getting all corroded. Not fun to replace when you are out in waves fishing.

Like he said,,,,”Cut those glass fuse holders right off and throw them as far as you can.”

You should also have a battery switch in there too.
Its not good for the system to stay hot all the time.

Thanks for all the help guys. It works great now. The orange wire was the 24v lead.

You are correct! I am glad it is working for you.