24 Volt trolling motor question

[Bassranger]

Ok, so I've got this problem with my trolling motor. It burns through switches all the time and even caught on fire last year close to my inline fuses... Its got the old motorguide plugs, which are a huge pain cause they always work loose, so I find myself reaching down more often than I care to adjust the plug. I want to replace the plug and receptacle and am looking at then Marineco setup, just wondering if anyone has any electrical advice for this issue or would go with something else.... thanks...

 

[Fishingron]

Bassranger - 2/28/2011 2:48 PM

Ok, so I've got this problem with my trolling motor. It burns through switches all the time and even caught on fire last year close to my inline fuses... Its got the old motorguide plugs, which are a huge pain cause they always work loose, so I find myself reaching down more often than I care to adjust the plug. I want to replace the plug and receptacle and am looking at then Marineco setup, just wondering if anyone has any electrical advice for this issue or would go with something else.... thanks...

Ok, if an electrical system burns thru anything, you've got a SHORT somewhere. If not a short, a very high resistance in the circuit some where. If it caught fire close to your inline fuses it must be fused extremely high (higher than the capacity of the wire to carry the load) or you have a high resisance load just short of blowing the fuse but higher the the wire capacity to carry the load.

ASSUMING the trolling motor is ok (ie in good working order) just about any marine rated plug or/and receptacle is Ok if it is sized the carry the rated load.

"I find myself reaching down more often than I care to adjust the plug"

This sounds like a high resistane issue.

A short gets things going right now. A high resistance load takes time, a few seconds to maybe a few minutes.
This sounds like a high resistance load.

 

[stratos21xl]

I would also check the wiring from the back of the boat to the trolling motor. If it's an older boat with older wire it could be corroded causing some if not all of the issues. If the wire gets warm while your running the trolling motor then you've got issues. I had a similar issue with my old Bullet, minus the fire. It ended up being the main wire that runs from the back to the front of the boat. Once we replaced the wire we pulled the old wire out and started cutting into it and stripping off the insulation and found tons of corrosion in the wire. I also had a semi-faulty circuit breaker back at one of the batteries. Replaced all of them for safe measures and never had another issue. One thing you never want to do when messing with electrical is up a fuse or breaker size, if it's blowing fuses then there is something wrong causing it to do so.

 

[Fishingron]

THX Bryan, was trying to not get to long winded on this issue. Many older boats do have undersized wiring for the new TM's. If it's less than #6, I'd replace it anyway.

Ron

 

[Oldman]

wouldn't hurt to check and make sure u have a good clean ground.

 

[Bassranger]

Thanks everyone for your help, I do think it maybe in the plugin itself...just replaced it and got a different trolling motor last night... both fuses is 20 amps and there is a possibility that it could be the wires corroded or shorted out, but I'm gonna try the new plugs and motor out and see what happens. The only reason I bought the new one was that I found a good deal on one from Big Ridge Brewer (thanks again)... I did try out this afternoon for a while, and it seems great... time will tell though.... thanks guys