Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I have two 12V batts connected in series for use with a 24V trolling motor.

Question.....What gauge wire should be used to connect the positive of battery #1 to the negative of battery #2? Batts are about 3-4 feet apart.

Currently, there is an 8/10 gauge wire connecting them. This is the set-up that came with the boat when I purchased. Seems to me that the wire it is not heavy enough, but I am not sure.

Thanks

I'm not an electrician, but that doesn't seem big enough. One way to tell is if they are getting hot during usage. I recommend going to your local auto parts store and getting some standard battery cables to replace them. You can also use welding leads

+1 on the auto battery cables.

I ran mine on my previous boat with 8 gauge and had no issue.

If you search the Internet, you will find tables showing you for any given length and current (that's the number of amps you're pushing), what gauge of wire you should use.

SoCalAngler wrote:I have two 12V batts connected in series for use with a 24V trolling motor.

Question.....What gauge wire should be used to connect the positive of battery #1 to the negative of battery #2? Batts are about 3-4 feet apart.

Currently, there is an 8/10 gauge wire connecting them. This is the set-up that came with the boat when I purchased. Seems to me that the wire it is not heavy enough, but I am not sure.

Thanks

I would use nothing less then #4 between the batteries. it all depends on the amp draw being applied to the batteries but #4 is more then sufficient in most cases.

Its all about the amp draw, the older 12 v 55 lb thrust motors draw around 50 amps, 8 gage is just fine for short runs and connecting them up, the newer 12/24 will still have a max draw of 50 amps on 12 v and 25 amps on 24 v so its fine, but on a longer wire run from the back to up front I would go with a 6 gage due to voltage drop.