24v or 12v trolling motor on Alumacraft V16 tiller
 

Hello all,
I am currently adding a bow mount trolling motor (Terrova with ipilot) to the front of my boat.
It has a yamaha 25hp 4-stroke on the back with the optional pull start. Reason this is important is below. Obviously I am trying to keep the weight down. My thoughts are putting a 12v on the front and putting a larger AGM battery in front. Then parallel wiring it to the main battery in back. typical weight on a 27 series battery is 74-76 pounds. Or, I could put two smaller batteries in the back of the front platform with group 22 at 40 pounds each. I mostly fish walleye/crappie on smaller lakes in western WI. However, we fish the St. Croix river and Mississippi quite a bit as well. Anyone have a run time on 12V ran in series like this? Not planning on pulling cranks etc..... I can use the 25 Yamaha for that as it has the variable troll feature. Lots of spot lock though....
thanks,

Justin

I would not hook up a 24 volt motor to one trolling battery and one starting battery. If that’s what it sounded like you where going to do. You want to have matched battery’s for the trolling motor. I would rather setup a 24 volt trolling motor using two 24 size battery’s. If you are trying to save weight. Or a 12 volt electric with one size 31 battery. If you do try the one battery in front and one in back hooked up to the starting battery. I would buy two of the same size and brand battery’s. Matched set for the 24 volt trolling motor. You did not mention if you have a color fishfinder gps running off the start battery.

Snowking,
I would not hook the 24v system to the starting battery and a single battery. I have heard you can run the 12v system in series with your dual purpose battery. If I were to do the 24v system it would be separate and on it's own charging bank.

Justin

If I had a tiller boat that size, I would have only a stern mounted trolling motor.

If a person is in the boat and fishing from the stern, the bow is going to be really light and control will be difficult with a bow mounted motor.

But, if you fish alone and want to balance out the boat, put two 12 volt trolling motors in the bow along with a 24 volt bow mount motor and fish from the center of the boat and you will be good to go. Balanced boat, balanced load.

Your choice.

Another option regarding battery is go with a 100ah lithium to run your Terrova. This is what I did in my Lund SSV-16, as I was also concerned about total weight in the boat. My battery weighs 33lbs, and will run a 12v Terrova for a long time.

I've got a 1999 Lunker V-16 LTD with Honda 25 hp tiller. Added a 12-v Powerdrive Ipilot this year. I hooked to the group 29 starting battery along with the depth finder (Garmin Striker with side imaging). 29 is the largest that will fit under my transom shelf, 31 will give you more run time, if you can fit it.

I ran spot lock pretty continuous for 3 days before needing to charge. I trust the volt gauge on the depth finder, so it is easy to see if/when it drops. After charging, I fished another 4 hours in whitecaps while on spotlock and still had plenty of juice left for the next day.

Bfish maybe you missed where the OP is fishing on rivers. With current that can suck trolling motors down allot faster. Maybe Garmin has a better battery display. My lowrence HDs is not accurate. Always reads a decent amount less then my battery is.

Alumacraft I did have a boat setup to run a 12 volt trolling motor with two battery’s. Since you have a pull start outboard as backup. If you drain the starting battery to low. The 24 volt system or 12 volt two battery system would be the same. Except the way 24 volt motors work they will suck down less amps. I still would start with two new battery’s. Not one new trolling and one old starting battery. If you are going to hook both up. Two battery’s for 12 or two battery’s for 24. You can get 12 volts off of your 24 volt system. For your locater and electric start. Just hook up to one battery not both. I would use a multi tester to make sure you hooked stuff up right. Since you are buying a new trolling motor anyways. Would not hurt anything to get a 24 volt motor. Would be no different then using a 12 volt on your starting battery and one trolling battery.

No way would I use a 12v if I could avoid it!! I have one now and the battery wears down FAST!!

[QUOTE=Snowking;6526106]Bfish maybe you missed where the OP is fishing on rivers. ....[/QUOTE]

Nope didn't miss that. I was 50 yards off the main channel which has a 2.0 mph current.