Is this wired correctly for 24 volt minn kota?

Hope you can tell what is what from my pic but I don’t think this is what I did on my last boat. Disregard the charger wires and basically you have a jumper from – to + and then 2 red and black.

Are both these red and black from the trolling motor at bow? I can’t quite tell where they come from and never installed a 24 volt motor before but in my last boat I am pretty sure both of the reds with breakers went to one battery on the positive post.

When I opened up the cover in my new to me boat, it got me totally confused. One red goes to a + post on one battery and the other goes to the – post on the other battery.

Is there more than one way to wire a motor in 24v?

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Yes, there are two ways to wire a 24 volt, or should I say two ways that look different.

One way jumps at the batteries, the other jumps “at the plug.”

When you jump at the plug there are four leads going to the plug (2 positives and 2 negatives). The plug itself has a jumper built in. It was more common to see when the 24v trolling motors just started coming out.

Does it have a jumper wire from battery A’s negative to battery B’s positive? Can’t tell for sure from the pic…

And either the wire colors are mixed up or something is wired wrong.

Definitely looks very strange.

The answer is “that depends”. It looks correct if you are sending 24 volts together to the outlet for the trolling motor. If you have a marinco plug there is the option to wire it 12 volt or 24 volt. In the 24 volt scenario you would wire the batteries individually without a jumper between the two. This sends 2 separate 12 volt sources to the outlet. The marinco plug then “jumpers” it in the plug making it 24 volt for the motor.
If you do not have a marinco 12/24 volt plug OR are using the “12” volt wiring then you would have your batteries wired as you show in the pic.

Bman, the jumper is from battery 1 – to battery 2 +, which is the only thing common with the wiring in both my boats.

The only thing I was wondering was why in my last boat, both reds went to one battery where in this case one goes to a – post. Just threw me for a loop. My 2 bank charger doesn’t show anything wrong, batteries charge and motor runs so it must be wired correctly?

Thanks for the input guys

If you look at the labels on the wiring, the bottom battery listed as TB1 has a negative sign on the label of the red lead. I’m not sure why anyone would do that. It is confusing.
I’d probably put a tester on the other end to see what is going on, and confirm the setup at the plug.

eyeguy507 wrote:

The only thing I was wondering was why in my last boat, both reds went to one battery where in this case one goes to a – post. Just threw me for a loop. My 2 bank charger doesn’t show anything wrong, batteries charge and motor runs so it must be wired correctly?

Thanks for the input guys

In your last boat the way the batteries were wired would make them in series/parallel meaning they are sharing a 12 volt load. This would make them dual 12 volt not 24 volt. The current configuration is how you would make a single 24 volt supply using 2 12 volt batteries with only 1 lead going to the plug.
Was your last boat a 12 volt trolling motor by chance?

Bman, the jumper is from battery 1 – to battery 2 +, which is the only thing common with the wiring in both my boats.

The only thing I was wondering was why in my last boat, both reds went to one battery where in this case one goes to a – post. Just threw me for a loop. My 2 bank charger doesn’t show anything wrong, batteries charge and motor runs so it must be wired correctly?

Thanks for the input guys

Kyhl wrote:

If you look at the labels on the wiring, the bottom battery listed as TB1 has a negative sign on the label of the red lead. I’m not sure why anyone would do that. It is confusing.
I’d probably put a tester on the other end to see what is going on, and confirm the setup at the plug.

Forgot to say but I put the labels on when I took the batteries out when I relocated my 2 bank charger. That’s when I noticed it was wired differently.

I actually found a pic of my last boats setup….both reds on one + post.

My last boat was also running a 24 volt minn kota. Maybe I was only getting 12, but it worked perfectly. Or maybe my new boat has a 12 volt motor? I guess I better check closer?

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Honestly, I dont think your other boat was wired correctly at all. First of all you should have a breaker on EACH battery. Both breakers are on 1 battery, that could be a recipe for disaster. Second I see a black, negative jumper on the top battery positive post so it appears it is wired for 24 volt otherwise.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Honestly, I dont think your other boat was wired correctly at all. First of all you should have a breaker on EACH battery. Both breakers are on 1 battery, that could be a recipe for disaster. Second I see a black, negative jumper on the top battery positive post so it appears it is wired for 24 volt otherwise.

interesting, I had my boat in the shop this spring and they put both breakers in one battery.
It’s a very reputable place that’s been around forever.

I hate this 24v stuff, it’s like looking at a bowl of spaghetti to me.

FWIW, I bought my first boat from an Electrician who was really into his batteries. They both had breakers, just covered up. That is the one in the last pic. He was so into his batteries, he wired 2 in parallel for cranking and electronics.

Anybody want to snap a pic of their 24v battery setup? Just to compare?

It just dawned on me but I think the reason there are 2 leads is because my boat(alumacraft) is wired for a bow and transom mount trolling motor…..I’ll test for continuity and find out I guess, then disconnect the transom port since I will never use it.

eyeguy507 wrote:

Anybody want to snap a pic of their 24v battery setup? Just to compare?

Here is mine;
Battery #1 (lower)
Negative post (lower left)- negative wire from the charger also negative wire from the motor
Positive post(lower right)- blue jumper wire to negative post of battery #2
also positive wire from charger

Battery #2 (upper)
Negative post(upper right)- other end of blue jumper wire from Battery #1
also negative wire from charger
Positive post(upper left)- positive wire (red) to 60 amp breaker on sidewall
also positive wire from charger

60 Amp breaker
Post #1- positive wire from Battery #2
Post #2- positive wire to the motor

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Here’s a couple sketches I drew up for you to show how a 24 volt system is wired.

They both do the same thing, but when they jump at the plug, you essentially have a 12 foot jumper wire, not a one footer.

I’m still baffled on what’s going on with your system, but maybe it’s rigged to run it both ways? Or to run a 24 and 12 volt system independently?? Or wired correctly but with wrong colored wires and some extras in there??

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thanks Dave, Bman and others……It was racking my brain why I had 2 leads until I saw the transom port. Evidently some people wanted the option? Still unsure why it was wired that way or why you would want a transom mounted motor on that boat but I got it figured out now. I ran a simple continuity test to verify and that’s what it was. I just disconnected the lead from the transom and I now have the motor wired the correct way as in Bmans last pic. I wish alumacraft would label their wiring to make things easier! Makes troubleshooting a breeze. I hope this helps somebody that has a similar setup. It’s weird but this bothered me for days wondering if there were multiple ways to wire in 24V. I been into wiring AV since high school and turned it into a career in the IBEW but this just didn’t make any sense until I noticed the transom port.

Are you sure that you didn’t install the lower battery back wards from the original layout. If you reverse the lower battery it will change the orientation of the + and -. Then correct the charger connections, which you must of done because they were not labeled. You would have a 12v / 12v system with a jumper in the plug. That would make more sense with the length of the wires.

Are you sure that you didn’t install the lower battery back wards from the original layout. If you reverse the lower battery it will change the orientation of the + and -. Then correct the charger connections, which you must of done because they were not labeled. You would have a 12v / 12v system with a jumper in the plug. That would make more sense with the length of the wires and the color codes.