Brother-in-law returned my old boat - battery questions

[thinze3]

I own a 98 Cajun 19' center console bay boat that I gave to my brother-in-law to use about 4-5 years ago. I wasn't using it anymore and he was itching to have one.

He just returned the boat with all 3 batteries removed, and now I don't think his wiring concept looks right. I am wondering if one of you can help.

Here is a photo of what I have in plain view. BIL simply hooked up the two 2 ga wires to one battery and the two 6 ga wires to the second battery.


There are two more 6 ga wires further back out of sight. The only difference is that they have a white stripe down the side. He said that these two power the trolling motor, and he hooks these up to the 3rd battery. There are no jumper wires anywhere to be found. This is what doesn't seem right to me.

My BIL is not the sharpest tack and he could have been installing the batteries incorrectly all along and never known it. I am not sure and do not want to make a mistake.

[SCHU]

1. Follow the wires to their termination point.
2. Most likely, the 2 ga wires go to the motor for cranking.
3. First set of 6 ga wires could be for a spare battery for an on board charger you can select which battery you want to run on.
4. Second set of wires 6 ga may well go to trolling motor and it could be a 12 volt motor?
5. If trolling motor is 24 volt, then the two batteries with 6 ga wire has to have a jumper to get 24 volts, I think...
6. Ask BIL WTH is going on with the wiring after you get new battys.
7. If wiriNG was wrong, TM wouldn't work...
8. Not a pro, just MHO...

[coachlaw]

All looks right to me if the trolling motor is 12v.

[Robalo]

I'd ask him to come over and rehook it up and then see what happens. ??????? He left you your boat w/o batteries-why? Geez, the least he could do was leave you a working boat since he's been using it for free-unless he's a POS IMO.

[thinze3]

The trolling motor is an old Great White 24V ! (GWB62V)

There is no battery switch (i.e. ... off, 1, 2, both)

I just checked.

[thinze3]

I'd ask him to come over and rehook it up and then see what happens. ??????? He left you your boat w/o batteries-why? Geez, the least he could do was leave you a working boat since he's been using it for free-unless he's a POS IMO.

I have the batteries. They were just out of the boat. The batteries appear to be fine, since I just finished recharging them the last two nights. He took them out every time he used the boat to charge them.

[WestEndAngler]

Brother-in-law returned my old boat - battery questions

There should be a jumper wire from second battery positive to 1st battery negative to get the 24V from batts and run in "series". There should be only one starting battery and honestly I'd look at running another for backup you can get a perko switch.

Probably a good idea to get an onboard battery charger / maintainer that way you only have to plug a chord in and it charges for you so you'll never have to remove batteries.

[thinze3]

There should be a jumper wire from second battery positive to 1st battery negative to get the 24V from batts and run in "series". There should be only one starting battery and honestly I'd look at running another for backup you can get a perko switch.

Probably a good idea to get an onboard battery charger / maintainer that way you only have to plug a chord in and it charges for you so you'll never have to remove batteries.

I have a maintainer mounted under the console with a plug in on it. He just never used it.




So I connect all the cables seen in the first photo posted at top to the same cranking battery. ??

If so, are the 6ga cables in the photo for charging? Then what charges the trolling batteries, just my trickle charger?

[Cuda340]

Get a "Perko" main battery switch as well!

[rdb]

Did I read that right? Jumper from 2nd battey positive to 1st battery negative?

[GregG]

If you have 3 batteries and a 24v trolling motor and a 3 bank battery charger/maintainer, then this is how I would have it hooked up....

Battery 1 - cranking battery - it should have the big cables and one pair (lowest amperage if different than the other 2) from the charger connected. red to positive, black to negative.

+ = starter positive (big red cable) and charger red
- = starter negative (big black cable) and charger black

Battery 2 - Trolling motor battery A - it should have one pair from the charger red to positive and black to negative, one red connection to the trolling motor to the positive, and one jumper from the negative going to trolling motor battery B's positive.

+ = charger red and trolling motor red
- = charger black and jumper to battery b + post

Battery 3 - Trolling motor battery B - it should have one pair from the charger red to positive and black to negative, one jumper from Battery A's negative to positive and trolling motor black to the negative post.

+ = charger red and jumper from battery a - post
- = charger black and trolling motor black cable

[GregG]

Like this if it makes it easier.

[thinze3]

Thanks. But, that leaves me with the two 6 ga wires, one red and one black, and the two pairs of small wires you see in this photo unaccounted for. The mounted charger/maintainer is not an issue, which is why I never showed those wires in the original photo.

I have 1 pair of 2ga wires (cranking). I have 2 pairs of 6ga wires, one for trolling motor and the other shown here. I have the 2 pairs of smaller wires (connected together as a single pair) shown here. I have 3 pairs of wires from my charger not shown here.

[GregG]

OK then, I would guess that the 6ga is probably for your accessories and gauges to the console and the smaller are for your engine ecm (control module) and oil pump. So in that case, yes hook them all up to the cranking battery.