Up Grading Elect. Motors

[NAUTI-NOTIONS]

Up grading from a motorguide transom mount to a minkota bow mount with autopilot. Looking for pro’s and con’s. Also pro’s and con’s on 12 or 24 volt. Short of needing two batteries. Plan on placing the batteries near the bow. Anybody experience problems with that type installation. The boat is a 21’ valco sled.
Sam

[Thick-N-Thin]

I have a Minnkota Auto Pilot bow mount with tiller steer. I have had this for 5 years with no problems. A friend has the same one with foot control and has some problems with the foot control. I chose the 42lb thrust with 12v and it works just fine for my 21ft jet sled in the lakes. The only down fall to 24v would be you need more room for batteries and if you have them hooked in series for 24v you can't use them for 12v accessories. Happy trolling!

[Vinny]

TNT & Sam,
With a 24V system (two 12V's in series) you could use either of the batteries for 12V accessories. The 12V accessories just need to be wired independent of your 24V system.
If you had numerous 12V accessories, you would probably want to set up some on each battery (ideally half of the load on each battery), or have an easy way (such as wing nut terminals or a "double pole double throw" switch) to switch all of your 12V accessories from one battery to another halfway through your trip. That way you won't discharge one of your 12V batteries before the other. I like the DPDT switch idea best, just make certain the switch will handle the amperage that all of your accessories will draw.

Vinny

[ 11-08-2001: Message edited by: Vinny ]</p>

[DK]

bumper chrome, get your self two 6 volt batteries hook them up neg to *** that leaves one neg and one *** to hook up your motor which is now 12 volts this way you can run that motor all day and not evev see a differance in power drop, by taking two 6 volts you still get the 12 volts but doubble the amprage and that way not draining one battery haveing it carry the full load,common sense tells you it takes longer to drain two batteries than it does one hope this helps dk

[NAUTI-NOTIONS]

DK
is this first hand or theoretically speaking. I'm getting ready to drop a 7-8 hun and i want it right.haven't thought of this may but makes lots of sense.
do they make a 6 volt deep cycle battery?

[ 11-08-2001: Message edited by: Bumper_Chrome ]</p>

[DK]

bumpercrome,yes they do make a 6 volt deep cycle and yes i know this for a fact by running the two 6 volt you will have 4 times the run time you would on a single 12 volt you have to look at the amp hrs not the cold cranking amps there is a big differanse, it is a much better way to go if you want to troll all day dk

[NAUTI-NOTIONS]

thanks for the solid info. are we talking std. battery size or golf cart 100pound plus size?

[ 11-08-2001: Message edited by: Bumper_Chrome ]</p>

[Thick-N-Thin]

Sam,

DK is right with the 6v system. With the deep cycle 6v batteries you can get up to 395AH (typical 12v is 105AH)and lots of run time the downside to the 6v battery would be the hieght on them as well as the pricing. Some can be as high as 16" and the lenght 12" with a 7" width. Price range can be from $150 to $250 each for a good 6v deep cycle.

I still think your best bet is two 12v with a 12v trolling motor and then put in a battery switch that you can also hook up to your charge system from your motors alternator. So far this has worked fine for me. Just make sure you have the right switch if you are going to be charging.

If you have the 24v system and it becomes to weak to run the trolling motor then you can't switch to any other battery system unless you want to have two 24v systems.

Just my .02 worth Good luck!