Hey yall, so I recently got a 04 tracker 14ft with a 20hp merc jet. I’m decently hands on when it comes to the mechanical side of things except wiring. So on my boat I have my running lights, fish finder, trolling motor, bilge pump and mat add a light bar. My question is how many battery’s do I need? A single 24v? Maybe 2 12v and a 24v? This isn’t my forte at all. So maybe some help would be greatly appreciated. As well would I need fuses incase? Thank you.
Looks up Anthony jones brigade boats on youtube, his channel is all custom jon boat builds and has wiring videos. Or look up anything to do with tiny boat nation.
You are mentioning 12v and 24v…. What size trolling motor are you running, 12v or 24v? How many fish finders and size? You need to figure out the draw of everything electronic and planned run times. You don’t want to weigh down a 14′ jon with 150# of batteries but also don’t want to run out of juice.
Alright I’ll have to check them out. And alright I’m unsure of the trolling motor. It isn’t a big one and it’s a bit older. And I have a hummingbird helix 9. Yeah I was looking into Dakota lithium, light weight they say and they aren’t a fortune.
…I’ll add, If this is something completely out of your wheelhouse and want it done correctly, bringing it to a boat rigging shop to have it professionally done correct the first time would be a suggestion. We can give suggestion depending where you are located.
I’ve done wiring before, I can run everything and what not. I’ll watch a video on it and see if I can get Insite on it. If not I have a friend that can do it. Everything is ran for what’s on the boat. I wanted to add a light bar, interior lights and maybe another fish finder
Check on the troller. if it’s not 24v, you won’t need a 24v set up, nothing else in the boat runs on 24v.
Ideal situation-
12 volt starting battery for motor and all accessories/electronics. Run everything to a blue seas box.
12 volt deep cycle for only the trolling motor. Make sure to have the proper circuit breaker at the battery.
All wiring should be marine grade wire with proper waterproof connections etc.
How long do you plan on running the trolling motor per outing? What kind of fishing do you do? No need to have depthfinder on if you anchor up and catfish all night. If you’re running a trolling motor and graphing crappies all day that’s different.
Also most 14’s I’ve had it’s pretty nice to get that battery centrally located in boat for weight balance.
Wiring is easy especially on simple boats. Recommend a master on off switch to kill juice completely after trips.
If it was me I would absolutely run this rig and throw what you expect for weight when rigged. With your motor you are going to want to keep everything as light and minimal as possible. I have been around alot of obj and have owned a few since 08. Weight is always number 1 with a obj.
Not a whole lot tbh. I fish for mainly walleye/smallmouth. Flathead during the summer. Yeah the battery box is in the middle right side.
Yeah there’s not a lot of weight in it. I can lift the boat/trailer from the tongue effortlessly. Motor weighs around 109 I believe. I want to add a live well and maybe tackle storage having an aluminum frame. If I fished in a lake I wouldn’t mind the weight. I fish in the Susquehanna and it’s a rocky river. So I’ll need it to be light like you said.
Make up a drawing mocking up everything you want to put on the boat and where.
Sounds like your set up is going to be pretty simple then keep the whole set up simple. Fuse boxes and switches can be bought off of Ebay or Amazon.
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