Trolling motor voltage

[superfly]

I have a stupid question for you electric motor experts. I have a 1991 ranger with a bow mounted foot control motorguide. Well she's wore out and I need to replace her. The problem is, I dont know if it's a 12 or 24 volt motor. This is the wiring as best as I can splain. It has 2 trolling batteries,they are not wired together, cross wired or anything like that. Off each battery there are 2 leads that go to a plug in the front and the motor has a 4 pin plug on it. So what is it? My gut tells me 24 but I dont want to buy one only to find out my gut was wrong. I know its a liar because it tells me all the time I'm hungry even if I aint really. thats why I'm FAT!!!! . Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance, superfly.

[FAADAN]

Sounds like a 12/24 set up to me. Will work with either. If you have two trolling motor batteries, you can wire it for a 24v motor. If you don't know what you are doing tho, I would have someone else do it for me. A volt meter across the plug with the negative or black lead on the pin with a bend and the red on one of the other holes should give you 12v and to another 24v.

[jigflinger]

Yep! Standard Ranger wiring for 12/24Volts. If it's the Motorguide that came on the boat, it's most likely a 12/24.

[Dutch552]

Yep! Standard Ranger wiring for 12/24Volts. If it's the Motorguide that came on the boat, it's most likely a 12/24.

x2

Ranger used the 12/24 configuration for years

[brushnjigs]

Yep 12/14, very easy to change over to a 24v.
You will use about 1/2 the battery with a new 24v that you used to use with the old model.

[Crappiegirl1]

HERES ANOTHER: why does my hds7 report 11 volts always on the battery instead of 12. new batteries.

[Barnacle Bill]

HERES ANOTHER: why does my hds7 report 11 volts always on the battery instead of 12. new batteries.

Its due to voltage drop caused by the size and length of the wire. Electronics like a depth finder draw very little amperage so small wire is commonly used. You are OK at 11 volts. FYI, a fully charged battery will read 12.6 volts (at the battery).

[Corker]

Its due to voltage drop caused by the size and length of the wire. Electronics like a depth finder draw very little amperage so small wire is commonly used. You are OK at 11 volts.

Small wire was adequate for the electronics of yesteryear, but today's units with large color displays plus GPS, SI, DI, etc. consume more amps. When I replaced a HB 575 with a HB 1197, the extent of the consumption increase surprised me. At the time, the 575 was on a stand-alone 7.5 Ah 12v battery. One fully-charged battery lasted for a full 12hr+ fishing day. The 1197 killed one of these batteries in less than 2 hr. My quick fix was a pair of wires salvaged from the latest trailer re-wiring project. These wires ran the full length of my 16' boat from the 1197 up front to the starter battery. This was a long run and the wire size was small, so instead of one pair, I used two. Even then, the 1197 reported voltage that occasionally fell below its automatic shutdown point--10 volts. I'm now using 12 ga wire and only seeing a drop of about .5 volts.

[justinp61]

HERES ANOTHER: why does my hds7 report 11 volts always on the battery instead of 12. new batteries.

My HDS-8 on the bow will show 11.5 volts on a fully charged battery, I have a Fluke 87 test meter that shows 12.2 volts of the wires in the front that feed the HDS. I believe the Fluke.

[FAADAN]

I think you can calibrate yr hds unit to the actual voltage measured with a meter.