BigBendFishing.Net

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 ??

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

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.

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.

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.