I have a 17 foot Key west from 97 with all original wires. I am rewiring it and and going to run wires from the back to the front for a trolling motor, what gauge wire should i use for a 12 volt trolling motor?

The bigger the better I find. But for that distance I would say minimum of 4gauge. I'm rewiring my 24 volt system after relocating my batteries and I'm going with 2 gauge.

You should be fine with 8 gauge wire for a 12 volt set up and that short of a run. It wouldn't hurt to use 6 gauge but in my opinion anything bigger would be a waste of money.

Just re-wired a 18ft Skeeter 56# 24v with 8ga and a 40a breaker. Works better than the 10 that was in it, plus we get better run time out of the batteries. I still can't believe he didn't burn that thing down with 10ga wire and no fuses.

Alright I'll probably go 8 cause it'll be easier to pull through the boat

I guess I just like overkill, haha. I just bought a set of jumper cables and I use that since the wires are together and already color coded

Would y'all recommend a 12 or 24v system? I'm just worried about the weight

24 in anything bigger than a mud boat... Or if you troll in rough or fast moving water. The 24v setup will give you longer run time and more power when you need it (if everything else is equal) only down side is that you have to tote and store another battery.

I was checking out the classifieds on the sportsman and there is a few used 24v motors that looked good.

Here ya go viewtopic.php?f=32&t=53282

Could I tie the cranking battery into an extra battery or would I need three batteries? I don't know if I have room for 3 batteries

You could but it's not the right way to go. You really don't want to be draining your starting battery. Also if you are going to go 24volt or parallel 12 volt it's best to have two identical batteries, age and type.

^^