melted wires on trolling motor ***new to boat fishing***

[williams32487]

Just bought a 16' smoker craft boat and it came with a Pfleuger M25 trolling motor. 3rd time out with it and it stopped working. I pulled the bottom cover of the foot control off and there were 2 wires screwed together on a single "post". The post and the wire connecters were melted and no longer made a good enough connection to give juice to the motor. We had quite the adventure getting off the lake (electric only) and being the first couple times out we didn't purchase an oar (now we have two...lol).

Went home and saw that there were a number of these "posts" that weren't in use so we cleaned it all up, put new connecters on, installed a 30 amp fuze between the the plug that goes into the boat and the foot control. Tested motor and worked great.

Went out 2 more times to the same lake and it worked fine. We then went to a different lake that you could use gas motors on and decided to bass fish the shores using the trolling motor. Plugged it in and nothing. We discover that wires are melted, again! This time it is where the connections were made for the 30 amp fuze.

We cleaned it up again and have since used it 2 times and now we're a little worried that the next time out we're going to have the same trouble. We are in the process of buying a new motor but it won't be until next season.

What could possibly be causing this problem??? I believe it to be a 12V motor hooked up to a 12V battery so I do not understand how it could be getting an overload to melt the wires.

Any ideas???

 

[dragula65000]

Re: melted wires on trolling motor ***new to boat fishing***

Make sure that you have a single 12 volt battery plugged into the trolling motor. Chcek all your wires to make sure you are not getting 'extra juice' from anywhere. Connections are the problem, or the wires to the trolling motor are shot. You can have the same problem you're having with jumper cables on a car. Some get REAL HOT when you have them hooked up and the jumper cables are garbage. The fuse should go first before you fry somethin else, and a 30 amp is all you need for a 12 volt system. You can even run a 30 amp opn a 24 volt system, but 60 is recommended. Again, its a wire problem, and make sure everything is grounded right.

 

[williams32487]

Re: melted wires on trolling motor ***new to boat fishing***

Make sure that you have a single 12 volt battery plugged into the trolling motor. Chcek all your wires to make sure you are not getting 'extra juice' from anywhere. Connections are the problem, or the wires to the trolling motor are shot. You can have the same problem you're having with jumper cables on a car. Some get REAL HOT when you have them hooked up and the jumper cables are garbage. The fuse should go first before you fry somethin else, and a 30 amp is all you need for a 12 volt system. You can even run a 30 amp opn a 24 volt system, but 60 is recommended. Again, its a wire problem, and make sure everything is grounded right.

Thank you. I'm 95% positive that i have done all of what you said to check. I will recheck it one more time just to be sure. Is it possible that a frayed wire somewhere between the battery and the recepticle for the motor plug could cause the stuff inside the foot control to screw up? I would think that it would get hot where the wire is exposed. Also i am 100% sure that it is hooked up to a sigle 12V battery as there are only 2 wires hooked up to the battery and they are the ones to the trolling motor. Everything else is hooked up to a separate battery. I knew from previous threads that a 60 amp was recomended for a 24V system so that's why i figured we would only need a 30A for a 12V. Strangely enough it did not blow before the wires melted.

Thanks again.

 

[williams32487]

Re: melted wires on trolling motor ***new to boat fishing***

Chcek all your wires to make sure you are not getting 'extra juice' from anywhere.

When you said this...what are some ways that it could be getting "extra juice" from anywhere? Perhaps in an area that is hidden one of the two trolling motor wires is spliced with something that goes to the second battery? Would this cause that to happen?

 

[dragula65000]

Re: melted wires on trolling motor ***new to boat fishing***

Exactly. Something else could be spliced into the current wires for the trolling motor that can be overloading the system. Also, there my be a problem in the foot control as well. As long as the motor is hooked up right, then where the wires are melting together is your problem. Maybe the wires that are melting are crapped out and overheating.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: melted wires on trolling motor ***new to boat fishing***

Extra current from somewhere else is not and cannot be the problem. You could connect 10 batteries in parallel to the troller and it would not fry a wire. You could series wire (accidentally) the boat starting battery with the troller battery but you have more than a fried troller wire. NOTHING else on the boat would work because it would likely be fried as well. Also -- the issue is NOT between the battery and the foot control. If something was wrong (a short for example), the wires would be melted at or before that point, not after it. The problem is very likely in the foot control itself or you have a motor that is drawing more than its design current because of binding bearings, water intrusion, fish line wrapped around the prop shaft, worn brushes, or any other problem that would make the motor turn hard.

Remove the prop and check for tightly wound fish line. If you find some, chances are the shaft seal is also torn or cut which may have allowed water into the motor. If you find no fish line, install the prop and turn the motor by hand. You will feel some jerkiness as you sping the prop but it should turn relatively freely. If it feels tighter than normal, you found the problem. The harder a motor turns the more current it draws. If it draws more current than the control or supply wires can handle, you get heat. Heat melts things.

 

[williams32487]

Re: melted wires on trolling motor ***new to boat fishing***

Extra current from somewhere else is not and cannot be the problem. You could connect 10 batteries in parallel to the troller and it would not fry a wire. You could series wire (accidentally) the boat starting battery with the troller battery but you have more than a fried troller wire. NOTHING else on the boat would work because it would likely be fried as well. Also -- the issue is NOT between the battery and the foot control. If something was wrong (a short for example), the wires would be melted at or before that point, not after it. The problem is very likely in the foot control itself or you have a motor that is drawing more than its design current because of binding bearings, water intrusion, fish line wrapped around the prop shaft, worn brushes, or any other problem that would make the motor turn hard.

Remove the prop and check for tightly wound fish line. If you find some, chances are the shaft seal is also torn or cut which may have allowed water into the motor. If you find no fish line, install the prop and turn the motor by hand. You will feel some jerkiness as you sping the prop but it should turn relatively freely. If it feels tighter than normal, you found the problem. The harder a motor turns the more current it draws. If it draws more current than the control or supply wires can handle, you get heat. Heat melts things.

I will check this also...i'm not too concerned about it because we're probably only going to use this once more this year then it's off to bigger and better things next year with a new one...hopefully. Thanks for the input!