# 36 volt trolling motor question



## Buckchaser (Jan 28, 2014)

Does anybody have any experience with using your cranking battery as the third battery? If so does it hold up to a 8 hr day of fishing in current? If it does, help on how to properly do it would be appreciated. Trying to eliminate having four batteries in my boat.


----------



## Five Prongs Of Fury (Apr 15, 2008)

Can't be done. The backfeed of current from the alternator/stator on the outboard will ruin the circuit board in the trolling motor.


----------



## Try'n Hard (Oct 23, 2008)

Mine was a 36v although I did not set it up. All I can tell you is the cranking battery in the back of the boat was for cranking the motor and also what gave me 36v for the trolling motor. The motor kept the rear battery charged for at least a year without additional charging. The two front batteries were connected to the cranking battery and the trolling motor and the front two batteries had an on board 2 bank charger. I loved it! Trolling with 101 pd thrust motor for at least a couple days. Never had a problem for 5 years then it seemed I was always replacing a battery and I got tired of it. Replaced the whole system but miss the power and extended run time Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner


----------



## Five Prongs Of Fury (Apr 15, 2008)

I run a 101lb 36 volt system. I generally run 4-6 hours but can go all night and still hhave 50-60% battery life at daylight. Might be able to get by with the cranking battery being part of the series on some of the older TM's but the new ones won't last.


----------



## luredinn (Jun 16, 2008)

Yes this can be done and my old boat was set up this way. cranking battery was my third battery to make 36 volts. Only problem was a couple of times my cranking battery was to low to crank my outboard after a all night gigging trip. I would just plug my onboard charger into my generator to charge it back up As for what someone said earlier about messing your tolling motor up. This doesn't hold water as you'll have and open circuit on your trolling motor -(not in use) when your outboard is running.:yes:


----------



## Buckchaser (Jan 28, 2014)

Five Prongs Of Fury said:


> I run a 101lb 36 volt system. I generally run 4-6 hours but can go all night and still hhave 50-60% battery life at daylight. Might be able to get by with the cranking battery being part of the series on some of the older TM's but the new ones won't last.


Well there's a lot of people with trolling motors less than ten years old ruining them. Most bass rigs around here are setup like this. I just recently upgraded from a 24 to 36 so I haven't inquired much about it until now.


----------



## T-Blaze (Aug 10, 2009)

I rig most my boats with just 3 batteries but they all have to be same size and put the ground from T/M wiring on the cranking battery.


----------

