Trolling motor voltage

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!!!! :Rofl. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance, superfly.

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.

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

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Originally Posted by 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.

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x2

Ranger used the 12/24 configuration for years

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.

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

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Originally Posted by Crappiegirl1

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

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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).

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Originally Posted by Barnacle Bill

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.

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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.

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Originally Posted by Crappiegirl1

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

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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.

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