EDITED: Wiring 3 Trolling Motors, etc.

[LunkerSnatcher]

I'm looking for recommendations on wiring my jon boat mod. I have three 80lb thrust trolling motors (2 on transom and 1 on bow) and 1 one fish finder in front (will be adding another in the back soon). I want to add some LED lights. I've also got a couple of Big Foot switches to turn power on and off for the rear trolling motors from the bow. I don't know anything about buss bars, fuses, etc. I do have a 60amp circuit breaker for each TM though. I guess the main question is how do I properly connect this all together? I don't know if I need a buss, just a fuse box, or what.

What supplies do I need to properly wire the 3 TMs, 2 fish finders, LED and navigation lights,and a live well?

What do you think? Thanks!

 

[huntinfool]

I have to head out right now, but I will try and help out later.

 

[Fishing Frenzy]

Can't help you out but just curious.. what are you doing with three 80lb thrust trolling motors on one boat?!!?!? :shock:
Fast trolling? :LOL2:

 

[LunkerSnatcher]

Can't help you out but just curious.. what are you doing with three 80lb thrust trolling motors on one boat?!!?!? :shock:
Fast trolling? :LOL2:

I fish electric motor only lakes and some are quite large. I don't want to spend half my day just getting to where I want to be. Also, I want to get back into fishing jon boat tournaments like I did years ago. I have seen tournaments won because of faster boats. I don't want to be putting along while everyone else is fishing the far end of the lake.

LS

 

[fish devil]

Can't help you out but just curious.. what are you doing with three 80lb thrust trolling motors on one boat?!!?!? :shock:
Fast trolling? :LOL2:

I fish electric motor only lakes and some are quite large. I don't want to spend half my day just getting to where I want to be. Also, I want to get back into fishing jon boat tournaments like I did years ago. I have seen tournaments won because of faster boats. I don't want to be putting along while everyone else is fishing the far end of the lake.

LS

:twisted: Most of our waters here in New Jersey are electric only also. I knew a guy with three transom 108lb thrust motors and one on the bow. I think he had a whopping 8 batteries on the boat.

 

[huntinfool]

Ok lets talk about some termonology.

A buss bar is an insulated flat bar that is used for ground. You bring the ground from one battery to a location (say under the console) and then run ground from there to all of your appliances.
Breakers are to be put inline (positive side) to stop the power if it gets too high, to keep something from burning up.
What voltage are your trolling motors? Do you know how to wire them up or are you needing that info too?
Basically what you would do is from your battery you would connect the ground wire to the ground on the batt. You would run the positive wire from the trolling motor to the breaker and then from the breaker to the batt. positive side. This is for a 12v system.
For a 24v system you would ground the trolling motor to one battery's ground. You would run the positive wire from the trolling motor as above to the breaker but you would connect it to the positive of a second battery. Then you would make a jumper from the first battery's positive to the 2nd battery's negative. (I will try and find a picture, but I know there are several posted here, just need to search for them.)
Now if your trying to run the trolling motors in the rear of the boat from the front of the boat, then you would need to use the switch you mentioned above. You would need to have seperate batteries for each trolling motor. So if your using a 24v system you would need to have 6 batteries.2 batteries for each trolling motor. So you would hook up the ground from the rear trolling motor and then the positive side of the battery you sould run a wire to the breaker and then run it forward to the switch. From the switch back to the trolling motor. Now if your wanting to run both trollers from one switch, you would have to make sure it is rated for that much power. As for the depth finder you just need to fuse it. you can run it to a fuse box, or just put an inline fuse. Hope this helps. Hard to type this all out and it make sense. It would be much easier to talk it out. I get lost in my own typing and rambling.

 

[T-MAN]

you could always run the trolling motors strait to the battarie with a 8 or 6 guage wire and have your 60 amp circut breakers right at the battarie, then you could run your smaller items (fishfinder, lights, etc.) To a buss bar and then run the two leads from the buss bar to the battarie. I hope this advice helps.

 

[LunkerSnatcher]

Thanks HuntinFool and T-Man!

HuntinFool, I followed your "rambling" just fine. I guess because I ramble a lot myself. I am indeed running 24v TMs. I guess I didn't mention this before because I thought 80lb thrust TMs are 24v. I'm gonna get a switch panel (kinda like this one -> https://www.cabelas.com/product/Boating/Boating-Electronics/Switches-Fuse-Blocks|/pc/104794380/c/104707080/sc/104615280/Marine-Grade-Switch-Panels/738018.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Fboating-boating-electronics-switches-fuse-blocks%2F_%2FN-1100527%2FNs-CATEGORY_SEQ_104615280%3FWTz_l%3DSBC%253BMMcat104794380%253Bcat104707080&WTz_l=SBC%3BMMcat104794380%3Bcat104707080%3Bcat104615280 ) and run accessories to this. I do have 2 switches to run the rear TMs from the front of the boat. Now that you've provided me some great info, I understand what I need to do with everything.

T-Man, I think I will run each TM to batteries with the circuit breaker. And wire the BigFoot switches in like HuntinFool said.

Thanks again, guys! :beer:

 

[huntinfool]

Wiring in a switch panel to run the rest of your stuff on your boat, you should get another battery and run the remainder of the accessories to it. So you would have 7 batteries in your boat. 2 for the front troller, 4 for the back 2 trollers and one for your accessories. You should not have any problems. I would suggest that you shrink tube all of the connections and you would be best to solder all of your connections. I do this on all of our customer boats and I have not had any problems. Soldered connections with shrink tubing have less of a chance for corroding and will not come loose at an inopportune time. Let me know if there is anything else you need.

 

[Waterwings]

If possible, post some pics of the setup when you get it done.

 

[huntinfool]

If possible, post some pics of the setup when you get it done.

Good idea!

 

[LunkerSnatcher]

If possible, post some pics of the setup when you get it done.

I will try to get post some pics when I get it done. It's time I search for my camera anyway...