Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I am installing equipment on my new pontoon boat. I have a Motorguide 24 V 75 lb trolling motor that I have installed on it.

I was going to install my fish finder, electric winch and LED lights on the two trolling motor batteries. But Motorguide states in their instructions not to install anything other than the trolling motor on the trolling motor batteries. They state to install any other electronics on the starting battery

I don't like having other equipment on the starting battery. As it stands now the pontoon came with the nav lights, the courtesy lights, the horn and the bait tank pump installed on the starting battery.

Should I install this other equipment on the starting battery? Would it be O.K. to install them on the trolling batteries?

Or should I buy a fourth battery for these other electronics? It will be a little tight to fit a fourth battery in but I might be able to do it by removing the battery boxes.

If I buy a fourth battery I will need to buy another battery charger since my current unit only supports three batteries.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Ed

Hook them to the starting battery, and throw a set of battery cables in the boat, you can always get a jump off one of the TM batteries.

But if you do want to run them off the TM just be sure to hook to both batteries to drain them equal, you can run the batteries in series's and parallel at the same time, for 12 volt you go positive to positive, negative to negative and for 24 volt you go + to - in between batteries and hooking the + and - on each other battery and you get 24 volt for the TM.

This will just cut down on the time you get out of your TM batteries, I use to run mine that way since I was running the TM for a backup most of the times

Thanks for your response.

I think it would be hard to ensure an equal drain on the two trolling motor batteries so I am going to hook them to the starting battery as you suggest.

I just remembered that I keep a Power Station in my van that has a jump start battery in it. I bought it mainly for the heavy duty air pump it contains.

So I will start taking that in the boat with me as I use the boat. That will provide a reliable jump start if I do happen to drain the starter battery. I have been charging it once a month but will start doing so once every two weeks to ensure it always has a full charge.

Thanks again,

Ed