Novice Trolling Motor Wiring Question

As the title implies, I have little experience with electrical work and even less with boats. Presently, I have a Minn Kota transom mount trolling motor that I wire by using a manual reset circuit breaker to simply connect the wires to the battery located at the stern. I'm not comfortable with trailering the boat with the TM mounted or leaving it that way once at home, and so I put it on and take it off at the loading dock, and it is sort of a pain in the neck to connect and disconnect the wires every time I use the boat.

I have been thinking about splicing some type of receptacle and plug onto the motor/battery to make getting the motor on and off much quicker. However, I haven't figured out the best way to splice the motor wires into a receptacle/plug while still incorporating the circuit breaker into the set-up.

Any ideas as to how this would best be accomplished are appreciated. Thanks.

Re: Novice Trolling Motor Wiring Question

The male & female plug ends are availible at many places-
I've seen them at my local Acadamey
I bet Iboats has them, check top of page for Boat Parts-Accessaries
Heres some-
http://www.iboats.com/Trolling_Motor_Plugs_Connectors/dm/*******.828529986--**********.288016289--view_id.238353

Re: Novice Trolling Motor Wiring Question

Thanks for the reply. I have seen some of these connecters, but I'm not sure how or where to splice in the circuit breaker. Do I just connect the positive wire from the motor to the circuit breaker and then run a piece of wire from the circuit breaker to the connecter ? Should I put the circuit breaker in line with the wires that are connected to the motor or the wires leading to the battery? Should I use butt connecters or some other method?

Also, should I go with the quick connect type (flat, square-looking connecters) or should I go with a plug and receptacle type? I was wondering whether I should mount the circuit breaker and maybe the receptacle onto the transom. For now, I drilled two holes into my plastic battery box and mounted the circuit breaker to the outside of the box just to keep it in place somewhere.

Re: Novice Trolling Motor Wiring Question

Circuit breakers do not go at the device-end of the circuit. They are installed at the source which in your case is the battery. One side of the circuit breaker connects to the positive post on the battery. The red wire to the motor connects to the other terminal on the circuit breaker. The black ground wire connects directly to the negative terminal of the battery. Now cut the red and black wires at the point where you want to install the receptacle. Leave a little bit of slack in the wires. Splice the receptacle wires to the battery wires using heat shrink tubing and butt splice connectors. Repeat the process with the plug on the motor wires. WARNING: Do not swap the receptacle and motor plug -- as in installing the male plug on the battery side of the circuit. Doing so means you have voltage on the exposed pins of the plug. You don't want those pins touching anything. Click the link below to see the various trolling motor plugs and receptacles. For your motor you don't need anything hi-tech. The basic $15 plug/receptacle combo will work just fine.

http://www.iboats.com/Trolling_Moto...1405391--**********.572063208--view_id.238353

Re: Novice Trolling Motor Wiring Question

(missed ST's post, typing at the same time...)

The circuit breaker should be mounted within 12" of the battery, or it can be directly mounted on the battery's + post with a metal strap. Use crimp-on ring terminals to connect your wires to the breaker and battery, and crimp butt connectors to the trolling motor wires and plug. You should heat shrink seal all connections to keep water out,,, I solder all crimp connectors also, but that's debatable. If you want to use a breaker that's great (I have them on all my remote mounted trolling motor batteries) and I'm not trying to talk you out of using a breaker because it's safer with one. But.....

The question I have is, is your battery located very close to the trolling motor, within reach of the TM wires? Why not crimp/solder a couple heavy duty alligator clips onto the trolling motor wires so you can clip and unclip the TM when wanted. I've used these clips for years and they work great on 30-40# trolling motors. A few of my trolling motors came from the factory with the clips installed so you could just clip onto the battery and go. From MotorGuide's site:

Heavy-duty 50-Amp Clips for Transom Mount Motors

The Heavy-duty 50-Amp Clips features an upscale grip design for a safe, solid connection. Made to handle higher Amp ratings. They are recommended as a quick connect/disconnect option for portable trolling motor installations. Helps maintains a good connection to maximize performance and efficiency. Part # 8M4000287



(disclaimer: If the battery is far away from the trolling motor, father than the TM wires, disregard my comment about not needing a breaker.)

Re: Novice Trolling Motor Wiring Question

Thanks. I think I'm following along here. If it helps, I have a very basic 14 ft. aluminum fishing boat that I bought used a few months ago (first boat). I place the TM battery on the floor right next to the transom, which is where the TM is mounted. I also have a smaller battery that I keep in the middle of the boat for the lights and fish finder.

The alligator clips may be the simplest solution. I really didn't think about them. I guess I sort of thought that they fell out of favor with more permanent-type connections being more prevalent nowadays.

ST,

Right now I have no battery wires per se, just the wires from the TM and the extra piece of wire I needed to use the circuit breaker. In your description, do I connect the positive wire coming from the receptacle to the circuit breaker and then use my extra piece of wire to then connect it to the positive post on the battery? Then just splice in the male end of the connector onto the existing motor wires by clipping off the "C"-shaped connectors that came from the factory?

Also, should I mount the receptacle and circuit breaker onto the transom just to keep things tidy and off of the bottom of the boat?

Re: Novice Trolling Motor Wiring Question

Don't over think this. Use whatever lengths, size and color of wire you need to do the following:

1) Pos terminal of battery to circuit breaker (close to battery as possible).
2) Circuit breaker to red wire on receptacle.
3) Neg terminal of battery to black wire on receptacle.
4) Cut current terminals off of trolliing motor wires.
5) Splice red and black wires from trolling motor plug to trolling motor wires.
6) You are done! Use butt splices and heat shrink tubing to splice wire-to-wire. Use ring terminals to connect wire-to-studs (as on circuit breaker and battery).

For a simple set-up like yours, adding simple clamps to the trolling motor wires may be the easiest and simplest for you.

Re: Novice Trolling Motor Wiring Question

Got it! Thanks for your help.

Re: Novice Trolling Motor Wiring Question

BTW, you can get alligator clips at Walmart for $2-3 in the automotive battery section. They are not the best quality clips (we are talking WalMart ) and will rust up, but for $2.... I used to run some sandpaper on the contact surface then they started looking rusty.

If you can find some chrome or tinned clips use those, they will last longer.