trolling motor plug............

[killswitch]

Am I just missing something obvious here or not. Here is the situation/question. Just recently purchased and installed a 24V bow mount motor. The motor has a red and a black wire, and my boat is already prewired with a receptacle. I stopped at a West Marine the other day and they had 2 plugs that would fit. One package was labeled 12V,
6 gauge wire and had a red and a black wire. The other package said 24V, 6 gauge wire and had a red, a black, and an orange wire. Why the 3 wires on the 24V package, and will the 2 wire plug not work since I only have 2 wires on the motor ?? What am I missing here ??

[fishinfool]

I found a diagram online at http://www.boatpartstore.com/trollwire.asp It appears the third wire is for a 12/24 volt system. If you have a straight 24volt motor then you only need a 2 wire plug.
I hope it helps.
FF

[BullHound]

I also got the three wire plug.I wired my 24v trolling motor using two of the three wires. I wired the batteries in series using the red and black and left the orange alone. Just use a voltmeter to determine what prong on the receptacle the wires correspond to. I'm not completely sure, but I think the third wire is used for wiring the batteries in parallel. Again, not positive but someone else might know for sure. Good luck.

[tin can]

Fishinfool is correct. The 3 wire plug is for a 12/24 motor. I don't think anyone makes one any more. The 2 wire plug will do what you need to do.

[killswitch]

Thanks for the info.................now for the humor from my visit to West Marine last week. And no, you can't make this stuff up. I asked the same question to those guys at West about the 3rd wire with the following responses. First guy did not know, and I didn't have a problem with that. At least he admitted he was not sure. Second dude thought for a few seconds and conversation went something like this: " I believe the third wire is to allow you to reverse the polarity so you can run in reverse" I said to go backwards?? Yea, you know just like a bilge pump..........reverse the polarity and it pulls instead of pumps. Then proceeds to get a wiring diagram from a Rule pump and attempt to show me how to wire the trolling motor. I said thanks, but I'm kind of in a hurry and need to run. Dude says thanks and let us know if we can help.
Like I said earlier, I don't have a problem with people not knowing..............just say you don't. No need to BS about it.