Trolling Motor Kicking Circuit Breakers.

Edge 70# 24v Foot control Two batteries two 40 amp breakers 24v #4 cable 4 wires to plug at plug have 25 + V coming out.This happens only on high #5 but my batteries don't last as long as i think it should(group 70 interstate) Fully charged onboard charger 4Hr To 5Hr Run 0n 3 most of time. On 17' 6" Stratos. Trolling motor less than a year old. How many amps does a 70# motor draw This was in open water not on bottom or in grass. What is the no load and loaded draw. It ran about 2 min before tripping. Cub48

Re: Trolling Motor Kicking Circuit Breakers.

A 24V 70# motor will draw 42 amps at maximum hence the breaker problem. The more times a breaker pops, the greater the degradation is (meaning it is less capable of "holding" at 40A). Regarding run-time, have you had the batteries "load tested". You do this by fully charging them and then taking them to any Auto store where they hook them up to a load device. Even though a battery may be fully charged, the battery may not be able to "deliver" its rated output and the voltage drops like a rock. Both batteries must test ok. One bad one will greatly reduce performance and run time. Depending on what the output of the charger is, 4 - 5 hours may not be anywhere near enough to fully charge the batteries. As an example, if you ran the motor for 3 hours you would have sucked on the order of 120 amps from the batteries. If the charger has 20 amp outputs it would take 6 hours minimum to replace that current. If the output was 10 amps you double that time.

Re: Trolling Motor Kicking Circuit Breakers.

The battries are less than a year old and i know they can be bad off the shelf. So i will check them. I have a onboard charger it turns green when it is fully charged and i know it is working as this morning when i checked the amp draw it was charging 36v i unpluged it to check the amp draw. I have a 40 amp breaker on each battery which is a total of 80 amps there are 4 #4 guage wires that run to the front of the boat they connect to a plug outlet that converts the 4 wires to 24v the 2 wires going to the trolling motor.Battery connections are clean the motor only ran on high for less than 5 min before tripping the breaker one is a push button reset the other is automatic reset. They are 24 volt breakers. May have to go to the river and do some testing. Thanks Cub48

Re: Trolling Motor Kicking Circuit Breakers.

1) Batteries less than a year old can die due to neglect and/or improper charging so because they are less than a year old is not valid reasoning for claiming they are "good"
2) Your on board charger saying the batteries are fully charged is also invalid reasoning. Yes -- they are fully charged as far as the charger is concerned. They may not be able to HOLD that charge or DELIVER the batteries rated AHr capacity. Fully charged does not make them "good".
3) You do not have a total of 80 amps. You have a 40 amp breaker on each battery. Either one or both will trip with 40 amps passing through them. If they have degraded -- they will trip with much less than 40 amps.
4) You cannot measure 36 volts from a 24 volt system.
5) You checked the amp draw of what? The charger draws 120 volts and xx amps from the AC Power line. The outputs do not DRAW power -- they deliver it to the batteries. If you are checking OUTPUT AMPS from the charger then you did that wrong as you cannot measure AMPS with the input to the charger or the outputs disconnected.
6) The same breakers can be used for 12. 24, 36 or 48 volts systems. Amps are amps.

Re: Trolling Motor Kicking Circuit Breakers.

With the charger plugged in it was 32 V instead of 36v slip of the finger, the charger was putting out 16v per battery as i had just plug the batteries up. The charger is a onboard charger I charge a couple days before unpluging it. As for the amperage draw it was the motor draw i was checking i removed the hot wire from the motor and put my meter from wire to plug after it started running it was pulling 1.8 to2.0 amps without a load (not in the water) Ok if you are pulling 42amps loaded on high how many amps are you pulling out of each battery. I am not up on 24v systems my thinking is you would be pulling 21 amps from each battery. My system has 4 wires going to the plug outlet 2 from each battery and they combind at the outlet the breakers are at the batteries. I can see if you had the batteries tied together and was using 1 breaker. Thanks for your help Cub48

Re: Trolling Motor Kicking Circuit Breakers.

You have a tendency to double everything in this system and need to think in different terms. You charger is not putting out 32 volts. It is a dual bank charger and that only means it is like two 12 volt chargers in one housing. Each is responsible for 12 volts. Yes -- charging voltage is in the 14 - 16 volt range. But neither of them is 32 volts. Doubling values in a conversation only adds confusion . A 24 volt system is a "series" system so the "system" is providing the power. The breakers are protecting the wiring -- they do not protect the motor. If something in the motor goes bad to the point where the breakers pop, the motor is already toast. I still feel you have two issues -- one being a bad battery because you are complaining of short run time. Again, ability to deliver the AHr rating of the battery is what determines run tiime -- not just the fact that the battery shows full charge voltage.

Re: Trolling Motor Kicking Circuit Breakers.

I take it that each battery has a 40 amp breaker, if so, each of the 40 amp breakers has to pass the full amount of current since you have the batteries wired in series. At stall speed your TM will draw over 40 amps and at wide open speed it's getting close to 40 amps.

I have 2- 70# trolling motors on my boat, bow and transom mount and running 40 amp breakers on each battery. I haven't popped the breakers yet, though, I don't run at high speed all that often and when I do it's only for short bursts. I went with 40 amp breakers as they were $5, instead $30-50 for 50 amp breakers. I figured, if I trip a breaker, then I'll upgrade to the 50 amp breakers.

I agree with ST on checking the wiring and that the breakers might be derated from tripping too many times. I'd make sure all the wiring is the proper size (6ga?) and all connections are clean and tight. If all that looks good, I'd replace the breakers with 50amp breakers.

Re: Trolling Motor Kicking Circuit Breakers.

Silvertip I went out to the shop and did a run down on my system tonight. As of now I have 4, 06 guage wires look like 04 but found it on the insulation. I have 2 24v 40 amp breakers. This a 1998 Stratos 273. The 4 wires attach to the batteries and run to the outlet where they are transfered to 24v. Ok will this work use 2 of the 06 wire, 50 amp breaker, Question 1 is 06 wire large enough to carry 42 amps 24v 18ft, Question 2 50 amp breaker Pos side or neg side. Question 3 Will a 50 amp fuse serve the same purpose I have access to fuses and lot cheaper free. As someone said amps are amps fuse blows put in another, the breaker blows take it off and push the button one takes about the same time. Question 4 2 bank charger will i need a switch between the two batteries and open it when charging. A thumbs up on the call of the weak battery i took my battery checker tonight and one of my batteries would drop to 11v after a few seconds. the other would hold 12v+. Thanks Cub48

Re: Trolling Motor Kicking Circuit Breakers.

If you have a bad connection at any point in the wireing or in the motor that allows the voltage to drop at the motor. The motor will try to draw MORE current than it would at a nomal voltage at the motor. Check the VOLTAGE at the motor, while under load. If it is dropping below 24 volts, you have battery or wireing problems.

Re: Trolling Motor Kicking Circuit Breakers.

There is no reason to change the wiring you have. But if you wish, yes -- you can get 24 volts using just two wires and yes -- 6 gauge wire is big enough -- and yes -- a 50 amp breaker is fine as is a 50 A fuse. Here is how to wire a two wire system. Just make sure the plug on your troller has the jumper removed and the two terminals on the plug match up with the two on the receptacle that provides 24 volts. The battery is probably the issue so fix that first. No sense changing wiring since that would not solve anything. You do not need to do anything with the charger. One set of outputs goes to each battery. They are totally isolated.

Re: Trolling Motor Kicking Circuit Breakers.

Silvertip said:

There is no reason to change the wiring you have. But if you wish, yes -- you can get 24 volts using just two wires and yes -- 6 gauge wire is big enough -- and yes -- a 50 amp breaker is fine as is a 50 A fuse. Here is how to wire a two wire system. Just make sure the plug on your troller has the jumper removed and the two terminals on the plug match up with the two on the receptacle that provides 24 volts. The battery is probably the issue so fix that first. No sense changing wiring since that would not solve anything. You do not need to do anything with the charger. One set of outputs goes to each battery. They are totally isolated.

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Silvertip,
I think he has one of the infamous 12/24V systems with the switch in the bow. In that case, rewiring for simple 24V will eliminate 36 feet of wire and it's attendant voltage drop. If 12V is needed at the motor for some operation, one of the two remaining wires can be used for the 12V tap on the batteries. Simply doing that, and using the 40 amp breaker that hasn't been tripping will probably get him going.

The original system was designed to charge both batteries with an adapter to the trolling motor outlet. Pretty worthless by modern standards. Certainly useless along side an on board multi-bank charger.

Cub48,
Judging from your comments so far, you lack a basic understand of DC electricity. An error with 2 high output batteries and 6 gauge wiring could burn down your boat and whatever building it's in before you can reach the fire extinguisher. Get someone with the knowledge to help you, hands on.

Re: Trolling Motor Kicking Circuit Breakers.

That's exactly why I suggested he NOT change the wiring. If the system worked before, it will work now. But it cannot work if one battery is bad.

Re: Trolling Motor Kicking Circuit Breakers.

We can end this now !! As I have done enough checking and know what i want. As for my knowledge of DC voltage I work with it almost every day and know it very well. My questions are about 24v which i know how to wire 24v i just want to use the correct way of doing it as i know if you use the wrong size wire the voltage drop to your motor could be harmful. Also if the amperage draw is too high it can fry a to small wire. It is better to ask questions even if they sound lame than to mess up and burn a motor up. I am going to get a new battery when interstate runs. I am going to change to a 2 wire system after rethinking the system and follow silvertips wire diagram will just have to figure out the wiring at the outlet. I am changing to 50 amp breakers and putting 1 at the pos post on the battery as to protect the wire from shorts. I put my post on here to get other peoples ideas and to see if they had the same problems, as i would not of thought at 24v the motor would pull 42 amps my concern was if my motor was pulling to many amps and had somthing wrong with it. Thanks everyone for your help excuse me for my lack of knowledge sometimes you learn something if you ask stupid questions!! Cub48