My 24 volt trolling motor is wired correctly at the batteries. the plug at the bow has two red wires and one negitive wire. from the plug to the peddle there is one red/black and one black. the two red wires read 13 volts each but when I check the peddle it reads 13. Should it read 24?

SOURCE: Converting From 12/24 to Starght 24 Volt

if it is 24v. then you need to connect 2 battery in parallel. since the battery is only 12v.
if one battery is shoing red and the other is sohwing green, that means you are using 12v only, not the 24v.
connetion as follow:
positve of battery 1 to the motor, the negative of battery 1 to postive of battery 2. the negative of battery 2 to the motor.

SOURCE: Converting From 12/24 to Starght 24 Volt

The batteries must be connected in SERIES. The method described is proper, but the name of the method is wrong.
On the female plug for the motor on the boat, if you have the wiring for TWO separate batteries coming to the plug, the male plug must have a jumper in it. To find out, disconnect the batteries one at a time and voltage check to see if there are two separate battery systems there. There probably are. If so, the series circuit is provided for in the male plug by the jumper and not in the back of the boat where the batteries must be wired independent of each other.

SOURCE: diagram of 36 volt hookup for trolling motor

To get 36 volts, number batteries 1 thru 3. connect pos 2 to neg 1, connect pos 3 to neg 2, connect pos 1 to trolling motor controller and neg 3 to ground on trolling motor.
This is only a solution for 3 battery system.
For 4 battery system, connect 4 to 3 pos to pos and neg to neg.
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