Re: Trolling motor wire size?
The only indications would be warm wires (maybe) and if you measured the voltage at the motor it would be low. Nothing is going to explode or catch on fire and I doubt you would even be able to tell if the wires were warm by touch, especially through fairly heavy insulation.<br /><br />The coils of the motor are where the problem would lie. A voltage drop indicates that some of the electrical current is being converted to heat energy. Excessive heat melts the waxie insulation around the wires coiled up in the motor. This leads to shorts between coils of wire which leads to motor failure. This is, of course, worse case.<br /><br />Many, including possibly the offical Minn Kota folks, would argue that no damage to anything is likely unless the voltage drop is severe - several volts - and that the only effect would be reduced power output from the electric motor and shorter run-time from your battery (decreased voltage = increased battery drain). This might be true - but it might not. The offical Minn Kota and MotorGuide requirements require less than 1 volt drop in the system. That requirement is probably conservative but it was made a requirement for some reason. The cost of using the correct size of wire is negligable and anyway, would you run your outboard de-tuned and accept your 25hp running with all the power of a 15hp?<br /><br />Short pig-tails spliced in to attach plugs, switches, etc. will not matter. Make sure your splices are really solid and protected from corrosion or they can become very high resistance points creating a point of large voltage drop themselves. Solder them if you can.<br /><br />An alternative might be to relocate the battery to shorten-up the wires. But, I'm sure you already thought of that. In many boats it's not that easy to relocate the battery.<br /><br />Let us know how it all works out.