New to boating, please help with question

[walleyewrangler]

Hey guys i need some help. I have a 17ft open bow boat and recently purchased a min kota 80lb transom trolling motor. we had our friend mount it to the back of the boat by the engine and turned out nice. Yesteday i put the boat in the water and turned on my trolling motor and it did not push me anywhere. the trolling motor works great, it just did not push me anywhere. could you please help me with what i am doing wrong. When i purchased the trolling motor, the people i bought it off of told me it would work great.

 

[roscoe]

Re: New to boating, please help with question

Welcome to iboats.

A photo would help to assess the situation.

Is the motor lowered so the prop is below the hull?

Is the prop spinning the right direction?

 

[walleyewrangler]

Re: New to boating, please help with question

Thank you for getting back so quick.




Here are a few pics of my troller. I don't have the photo of my boat because i keep it at a storage facility because i live in a town. the first pic is the way i put it in the water. If you are behind the boat looking to the front, we made a contraption to clamp it on to the left of the gas motor. Your 2 questions, i believe (hope) its spinning in the right direction. (I noticed it doesn't seem to be spinning fast though). The other question, the motor is defiantly low enough under the hull.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: New to boating, please help with question

Do you realize you can increase the speed by turning the handle clockwise? It should be an infinite variable speed motor controlled by turning the handle like the old motorcycle throttles.

 

[walleyewrangler]

Re: New to boating, please help with question

yes i turned it the whole way to 100. i thought maybe we had it on backwards and i used it in reverse at 100. It didnt do much of anything. When i looked down it seemed like it wasnt spinning super fast (but like i said, im new to boating), it was just spinning just fast enough to where you couldnt see blades.

 

[MAXXIE]

Re: New to boating, please help with question

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread because I'm looking into a trolling motor for my 17' bowrider. I would think 80lbs of thrust would be plenty...I'm told that anything over 55lbs would do the job. Have you looked to the battery yet? Maybe you have a very weak charge or a dead battery. I ask because you said you turned it to 100 & it was not spinning very fast. I would make sure on the charge & test it in the garage & see what happens. Is the motor new or used? If used & the seller said "It works great", might be a bit of salesmanship on his part. Post up when you figure what the problem is. Good luck

 

[jigngrub]

Re: New to boating, please help with question

Yeah, check the battery and also check the prop, you may have a pin sheared in the prop and the motor is spinning fast but the prop isn't.

Cranking an 80 lb TM to 100 quickly should give your boat a big initial push that you will definitately be able to feel and see.

Your possible problems are:

battery

prop

speed control switch

control module (brain)

 

[series60]

Re: New to boating, please help with question

Hey guys i need some help. I have a 17ft open bow boat and recently purchased a min kota 80lb transom trolling motor. we had our friend mount it to the back of the boat by the engine and turned out nice. Yesteday i put the boat in the water and turned on my trolling motor and it did not push me anywhere. the trolling motor works great, it just did not push me anywhere. could you please help me with what i am doing wrong. When i purchased the trolling motor, the people i bought it off of told me it would work great.

Just a heads up on those Min-Kota trollers. They have a tendency to leak water into the motor housing. If your battery is up and in good shape and the prop isn't turning very fast I would suspect there might be water in the motor. Take the plastic prop off and loosen the two 5/16 bolts that hold the motor sections together. Just loosen the bolts enough to see if water leaks out. If there is water in the motor housing there is probably lots of corrosion in the housing which may or may not be repairable.

 

[walleyewrangler]

Re: New to boating, please help with question

i hooked up the battery and tested it and it was 80% charged and its a marine deep cycle. I didnt know if maybe i put it on backwards on the boat when i clamped it down. This is just so frustrating. i bought it used, but only reason i did was because it was a friends that had it on his bass boat (he sold his boat becuase he moved down south). i know it works well because i fished few weeks later on his boat with that motor he sold me.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: New to boating, please help with question

If your battery was 80% and fully charged, that may be your problem. Try it with another battery, you can hook it up to your cranking battery to check it and it won't hurt anything.

Are you sure if this is a 12 volt or 24 volt motor? If it's a 24 volt and you're trying to run it off of 12 volts it isn't going to run well.

 

[Lurch77]

Re: New to boating, please help with question

Are you sure if this is a 12 volt or 24 volt motor? If it's a 24 volt and you're trying to run it off of 12 volts it isn't going to run well.

This is it right here. The Traxxis 80 uses a 24 volt motor, according to everything I see online, including MinnKota's website.

walleyewrangler, verify this is the case, and if so you'll need a second battery wired in like you see at this link: http://www.trollingmotors.net/trolling-motor-wiring-diagram

 

[walleyewrangler]

Re: New to boating, please help with question

Yeah, check the battery and also check the prop, you may have a pin sheared in the prop and the motor is spinning fast but the prop isn't.

Cranking an 80 lb TM to 100 quickly should give your boat a big initial push that you will definitately be able to feel and see.

Your possible problems are:

battery

prop

speed control switch

control module (brain)

Thank you for your response. Im going to double check the batteries, if their bad i still have my receipts and will take them back. the speed control i can tell it does switch the speeds but im going to take a look at the brain.

 

[walleyewrangler]

Re: New to boating, please help with question

If your battery was 80% and fully charged, that may be your problem. Try it with another battery, you can hook it up to your cranking battery to check it and it won't hurt anything.

Are you sure if this is a 12 volt or 24 volt motor? If it's a 24 volt and you're trying to run it off of 12 volts it isn't going to run well.

Its a 24 volt motor. I have 2 batteries on the boat and i asked the mechanic if their both up and hooked up and he said yea, but im going to look more into it once i get to my boat and give you an update once i look. Thank You

 

[walleyewrangler]

Re: New to boating, please help with question

Excellent, thank you. Im gonna print this out and take it to my mechanic and show him this diagram. Also when i get home to look and see if their is water inside it. Thank you everyone for your expertise.

 

[Maclin]

Re: New to boating, please help with question

Its a 24 volt motor. I have 2 batteries on the boat and i asked the mechanic if their both up and hooked up and he said yea, but im going to look more into it once i get to my boat and give you an update once i look. Thank You

Assuming you are using 2 12volt batteries they need to be connected in SERIES and not PARALLEL, pardon my intrusion if you have verified this.

SERIES is when they are connected to each other from Positive to Negative when first battery is negative connection to troller and second battery is positive connection to troller. This produces 24v to the troller. Current draw capability is limited to the weakest battery's potential.

PARALLEL is when they are connected NEG to NEG and POS to POS. This produces 12volts but twice the current drawing capability.

 

[Maclin]

Re: New to boating, please help with question

I had not noticed the link Lurch provided, good stuff, exactly what my concern was in my previous post.

 

[walleyewrangler]

Re: New to boating, please help with question

Assuming you are using 2 12volt batteries they need to be connected in SERIES and not PARALLEL, pardon my intrusion if you have verified this.

SERIES is when they are connected to each other from Positive to Negative when first battery is negative connection to troller and second battery is positive connection to troller. This produces 24v to the troller. Current draw capability is limited to the weakest battery's potential.

PARALLEL is when they are connected NEG to NEG and POS to POS. This produces 12volts but twice the current drawing capability.

Excellent, ill be sure to ask him. Never knew all this could go into hooking up batteries. and yes im using 2 12vlt marine deep cycle

 

[airshot]

Re: New to boating, please help with question

My guess is your batteries are not connected together properly, I had a 40 lb thrust on my 18' and it worked great as long as I was not headed into a strong headwind.

Airshot

 

[walleyewrangler]

Re: New to boating, please help with question

My guess is your batteries are not connected together properly, I had a 40 lb thrust on my 18' and it worked great as long as I was not headed into a strong headwind.

Airshot

now that i think of it, there was a nice wind when i tried to launch the boat, but yet it still didnt seem to have the power. ill know around 3pm bc i called the mechanic and hes looking at it within the next few hours.

 

[walleyewrangler]

Re: New to boating, please help with question

just wanted everyone to now with your help, the issue is fixed. the battery was rigged up wrong and now it is working great. Thanks You