I have a 2001 Triton tr-186. It has the dual trolling motor built in charger system.

Well, for over a year now, my trolling motor has terrible top end power, and pretty pathetic longevity.

Now there are three batteries in my boat. One is a cranking starter battery. The other two are (brand new) trolling batteries.

I originally thought my problem was old batteries.

After replacing those two batteries, the top end power has not increased and its actually only using one of the two batteries. It appears to be hooked up correctly.

Now, the cranking starting battery is supposed to be required a trickle charger every 3-4 trips. It is supposed to be seperate of the dual charger system. There is no alternator in a 2001 Triton to begin with.

So what I recently found out is that when I use the dual charger (supposed to be for the two trolling batteries) it ends up charging the cranking battery, and ONE of the trolling batteries.

So what is really going on ? It appears that someone (a mechanic) who replaced some batteries for me two years ago maybe hooked them up the wrong way?

Does anybody have any ideas on what to do?

Let me re-state that it appears that both the new trolling batteries are hooked up.

Oh, and one other major thing.....I have a motorguide. Now on the foot pedal you are supposed to be able to control which battery you run off. One says "24 volt" and the other option is "12 volt". Now when I switch it during the day, there is no varying in power. When the boat was brand new, it varyed everytime I swithched. (hinting that it was using both batteries) now that it never varies, and dies so easy (the obvious answer is that it is only using ONE battery)

thanks for any help!

http://www.calfishing.com/gallery/v/members/bigreenjobass/

Jeremy,
There are two ways to hook up dual batteries for your trolling motor, parallel and in series. If the batteries are hooked up in parallel the output voltage would be 12 volts but your current availability and longevity should be greater, you could possibly charge both batteries off of one charger this way. If they are in series your output would be 24 volts.
You can tell by looking at the connections. Parallel will have both batteries (+) and (-) terminals hooked together and then out to the trolling motor. In series will have one batteries (-) hooked to the other's (+) terminal and then a (+) terminal fron one battery and a (-) terminal from the other battery going to the trolling motor.

You need to wire it in paralell for the 24 volt trolling motor. Then you should be $$

I am a little confused by your comment " the Triton doesn't have an alternator and requires a trickle charge every 3-4 trips" ?
Whatever outboard motor you're running surely does have a charging system and should be keeping the cranking battery charged to the proper voltage if you are using the boat on a regular basis. Perhaps there is a problem with your outboard's battery charging system output and that is why someone connected one of the trolling battery charger outputs to the cranking battery. Normally each set (1 positive& 1 negative ) from the trolling battery charger outputs are connected to the pos & neg terminals of each battery . If the batteries are properly connected in "series" for a 24 volt system but only one battery is being charged once the battery without any charger connection goes dead you would be left with only 12 volts.
The total voltage of the series connected batteries would be 12volts
(battery on charger) + 0 volts (uncharged dead battery)for a total of 12 volts. You need to verify the connections between the two trolling batteries and the voltage of each battery. A low cost DC voltmeter would be a great help in trouble shooting this problem .
When you start your outboard you should see an increase in the battery voltage of the cranking battery if the charging system is working properly . Same with the trolling motor batteries once you plug the onboard charger in . Hope this helps