Tandem 12 volt batteries?

[SpeckWick]

Excuse my ignorance, please. I am in the process of upgrading my Tracker 175 to make it a little more trolling friendly. I have heard about piggybacking two twelve volt batteries to make a charge last longer. Not a 24 volt set up, but just two 12 volts working as a single 12 volt source. Can this be done, and is it something worth doing? Any drawbacks? Do the batteries have to be identical as far as amp hours or cranking amps?

[deerman4567]

hi, my battery guy said put 2 6volt golfcart batteries in series and your run time would be looooooooong!!!! he said that 6 of them will push a 1000 pound golfcart,2 drunks and a case of beer all day long...lol

[frank lawhead]

DID THAT ONCE ---TROLLIN MOTOR WORKS A LOT LONGER
IF THE BATT. WER,NT THE SAME I WOULD THINK THEY WOULD =OUT AND THEN BE THE SAME

[Mr Zip]

There is a great post on the Missouri site on this subject

[kansas crappie]

You just need to hook the batteries up pos to pos neg to neg then run lead s to motor pos to pos neg to neg. If using two 6 volts you will have to hook them neg to pos and use the the neg and pos that do not have connectors on them to your motor. Kyle

[Barnacle Bill]

Running 2 batteries in parallel works best when they are both the same size and age. When they are different one of them will not get fully charged when using an automatic charger.

[siscoken]

The batterys should be the same ...they should also be the the same age. If you use a new and and old battery together they may not last as long as the single good battery.
The weeker battery will draw the the other down if the voltages are not the same even when not being used.
But if you take two new batteries of the same amp hr and routinly check their voltages seperatly and charge them properly ....they will give you long run time.
The simple math is if you charge a battery at 8 amps for 10 hrs..... you can draw 80 amps for 1 hr The math stays fairly constant up to the capacity of the battery
If you take two dead batteries and put them on the 8 amp charger for 10 hrs..you can still only draw 80 amps for 1 hrs. Therefor you have to charge them twice as long with the same 8 amp charger to see an advantage.
I just pulled this out of my memory sso someone can correct me if I made a mistake.
hope this is not too confusing I just took my medication
Ken

[SpeckWick]

If more ampere-hours are required, you can connect two (or more) new and identical 12-volt batteries in parallel. You can also connect two larger new and identical six-volt batteries in series by attaching the negative terminal of the first battery to the positive terminal of the second battery. If you connect two 12-volt batteries in parallel that are identical in type, age and capacity, you can potentially double the total capacity. If you connect two that are not the same type, you will either overcharge the smaller of the two, or you will undercharge the larger of the two.

Thanks Mr Zip. I found the article on the Missouri site you mentioned. that is some pretty in depth stuff.

[CrappiePappy]

Excuse my ignorance, please. I am in the process of upgrading my Tracker 175 to make it a little more trolling friendly. I have heard about piggybacking two twelve volt batteries to make a charge last longer. Not a 24 volt set up, but just two 12 volts working as a single 12 volt source. Can this be done, and is it something worth doing? Any drawbacks? Do the batteries have to be identical as far as amp hours or cranking amps?

Here's a link with diagrams, about hooking & charging 12V batteries in Parallel & Series, that you might find helpful :

http://batterytender.com/connecting.php/#5


...... luck2ya ... cp