Trolling Motor Issue And Fish Finder

[Fishing N Boots]

I am a newbie at bass boats and I took my boat out yesterday for an all day of fishing and had a couple of issues I wanted to see if you guys wouldnt be able to help me out with either of them.

 

1st. The trolling motor was intermintent. Basically, when we first got to the lake it worked for about 2 minutes, then just quit while in the water. I did nothing different, it went from working to not working while I was using it. While on the water I checked the batteries because I had brought a jump box that when hooked to the battery would let you know of the voltage, and they were fine. I checked all the wires and connection and everything seemed fine. Then after an hour of not messing with it or even checking it I decided to. I hit the button and sure enough it works. So I put it in the water and it worked for about 3-4 hours. Then all of a sudden, boom, it stops working again. I check the batteries and they are fine. So I'm a newbie at trolling motors, so I am not sure if they need to charge up themselves, if they run constant power off of batteries, if there are fuses in them, I have no clue.

 

2nd. Fish Finders. i'm new to fish finders and was trying to read them and got the jist of it from youtube but I noticed that near the surface there was always interference from the transom transducer all the way down to about 3 feet then there would be nothing all the way down to the bottom. Alot of white background mainly, the gps worked fine though. You never realize how much you actually need something that shows you where you have been on the water. Also, the trolling motor fish finder, just seemed to be off, depth was not the same as the other fish finder, same interference. So I will try and post pictures later of the transducers to see if they are correct or not.

 

Any help on these issues would be greatly appreciated.

[Traveler2586]

I am a newbie at bass boats and I took my boat out yesterday for an all day of fishing and had a couple of issues I wanted to see if you guys wouldnt be able to help me out with either of them.

 

1st. The trolling motor was intermintent. Basically, when we first got to the lake it worked for about 2 minutes, then just quit while in the water. I did nothing different, it went from working to not working while I was using it. While on the water I checked the batteries because I had brought a jump box that when hooked to the battery would let you know of the voltage, and they were fine. I checked all the wires and connection and everything seemed fine. Then after an hour of not messing with it or even checking it I decided to. I hit the button and sure enough it works. So I put it in the water and it worked for about 3-4 hours. Then all of a sudden, boom, it stops working again. I check the batteries and they are fine. So I'm a newbie at trolling motors, so I am not sure if they need to charge up themselves, if they run constant power off of batteries, if there are fuses in them, I have no clue.

 

2nd. Fish Finders. i'm new to fish finders and was trying to read them and got the jist of it from youtube but I noticed that near the surface there was always interference from the transom transducer all the way down to about 3 feet then there would be nothing all the way down to the bottom. Alot of white background mainly, the gps worked fine though. You never realize how much you actually need something that shows you where you have been on the water. Also, the trolling motor fish finder, just seemed to be off, depth was not the same as the other fish finder, same interference. So I will try and post pictures later of the transducers to see if they are correct or not.

 

Any help on these issues would be greatly appreciated.

PM sent.

[Christian M]

Sounds like your circuit board or control board is going bad. I've seen that happen with motors before. That is if you are using separate batteries. If you're just using one battery for everything that's probably the issue. You not providing enough power for all of the electronics to work properly, and so they shut themselves off.

[Fishing N Boots]

Sounds like your circuit board or control board is going bad. I've seen that happen with motors before. That is if you are using separate batteries. If you're just using one battery for everything that's probably the issue. You not providing enough power for all of the electronics to work properly, and so they shut themselves off.

 

I do have 2 batteries connected.

 

Also, here are the items that I was referring too.

 

J084MK00694

 

J = 2009 Model

084 = Day of the year it was made

MK = Minn Kota

00694 = Serial Number

 

Minn Kota Edge 65/FC-45" L&D

 

Brand New Elite 4x on the trolling motor.

Brand New Elite 5 at console.

[Sun Fish]

I had a similar issue and it was my receptacle going bad or simply not holding the plug well.  To me it sounds like a connection issue and if it is, that would be the cheapest simplest thing to fix.  My motor was doing the same thing and I eventually figured out if I screwed around with the plug in the receptacle it would work again.  As far as the fish finder it depends what model you have.  If it's a humminbird and you are running it in max mode in shallow water you will see color in the top 3 feet of the water column, it's just the nature of the beast in max mode.  Switching to clear mode and changing your surface clutter settings in shallow water will take care of that issue.

[flippin Dan]

Had this with a loose ground connection last year. Intermittent t/m work then stop.

[Todd Driscoll]

The clutter you describe is referred to as surface clutter and can extend down to over 5 feet.  This is caused by air bubbles from waves or prop wash, suspended particles, plankton, etc.  You can adjust your surface clarity filter in the unit menu (off, low, medium, high).  I would run it on either low or off.  Also, for more information regarding sonar operation, see link below.

 

http://support.lowrance.com/system/selfservice.controller?CONFIGURATION=1001&PARTITION_ID=1&secureFlag=false&TIMEZONE_OFFSET=&CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&ARTICLE_ID=2967

[lmoore]

The trolling motors will give different depths because they are normally mounted at different depths.  Do you have the trolling motor transducer bracketed to the underside of the TM?

[Fishing N Boots]

The clutter you describe is referred to as surface clutter and can extend down to over 5 feet.  This is caused by air bubbles from waves or prop wash, suspended particles, plankton, etc.  You can adjust your surface clarity filter in the unit menu (off, low, medium, high).  I would run it on either low or off.  Also, for more information regarding sonar operation, see link below.

 

http://support.lowrance.com/system/selfservice.controller?CONFIGURATION=1001&PARTITION_ID=1&secureFlag=false&TIMEZONE_OFFSET=&CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&ARTICLE_ID=2967

 

Awesome, thanks for the advice. i will check that link out, and mess around with my fish finders next time on water.

 

The trolling motors will give different depths because they are normally mounted at different depths.  Do you have the trolling motor transducer bracketed to the underside of the TM?

 

Yes, it's mounted on the TM. I guess that makes sense, just one time it was only reading like 1ft deep when we were in 10ft of water.

[fstr385]

On some motors its motor brushes, and some the control board. I had the same problem with mine, and went out to start pulling the motor off as I was just going to get a new one instead of fixing it, and reallized it was a worn arced up plug and the wires were all nasty and pited up into the receptical, so i stripped the wired to fresh copper and installed a new receptical and plug and it works fine now. Check your breaker connections, spices, plugs, ect before ordering parts.

[BobP]

Wires in the plug, wires in the plug receptacle, and wires to/from the foot control are the things I check first.  In your sonar's setup menu you'll find something like "depth offset" which subtracts or adds depth to the sonar readout depending on how deep the sonar transducer is mounted under water.    I can never remember whether the offset is + or - on a TM transducer but if you are in shallow water you can just dip a rod in the water to find how deep the water is and adjust the offset to agree with that.  Then set the offset on your other sonar to agree with that depth too.

[Traveler2586]

On some motors its motor brushes, and some the control board. I had the same problem with mine, and went out to start pulling the motor off as I was just going to get a new one instead of fixing it, and realized it was a worn arced up plug and the wires were all nasty and pitted up into the receptacle, so i stripped the wired to fresh copper and installed a new receptacle and plug and it works fine now. Check your breaker connections, spices, plugs, ect before ordering parts.

 

 

Wires in the plug, wires in the plug receptacle, and wires to/from the foot control are the things I check first.  In your sonar's setup menu you'll find something like "depth offset" which subtracts or adds depth to the sonar readout depending on how deep the sonar transducer is mounted under water.    I can never remember whether the offset is + or - on a TM transducer but if you are in shallow water you can just dip a rod in the water to find how deep the water is and adjust the offset to agree with that.  Then set the offset on your other sonar to agree with that depth too.

 

Unless, for some reason, you remove you trolling motor at the end of the fishing day; IMHO you don't need, and want, a plug / receptacle setup.  You want as few connections as possible between your batteries and TM's foot control; and with the connections you must have, they should be both water & air tight to minimize and hopefully eliminate oxidation; something you can not achieve with a plug / receptacle setup regardless if it's push-pull or twist-lock type.

 

When a connection oxidizes that oxidation is a resistance film to impeed current flow which creates heat in the contact and affects the TM's operation.  As current follows the path of least resistance it is then focused in small clean areas of a contact which offer the least resistance; this is evident by pitting in the metal of the contact that is now asked to carry too much current for its size. An oxidized contact can in fact eat its self up to the point of complete failure.

 

I would offer that anyone can build a simple air & water tight connection by using "Ring Connectors"; a nut, bolt, & lock washer; a dab of dielectric grease, a layer of rubber tape, and a outter layer of vinyl tape (the liquid vinyl tape works very well)  Properly assembled the connection should look like new after a years service on a boat.

[Downeaster2010]

If it is an older trolling motor, others are correct in that it could easily be a connection problem.  Start first checking the wires to the

male plug, the Pull out the female and check those wires and tightness.  If all is ok there work backward and see if there is a

circuit breaker, and check connections there.  Last check the connections and fuses to the batteries.  Dirty terminals will give

poor performance.  Connections that are years old will corrode over time regardless of how well they are put together.  They

generally corrode from electrolysis.  Before he season starts it is a good idea to check all wiring throughly with your trolling

motor, rather than get on the water and have troubles.  I have many friends that check exactly nothing and then ***** when

things don't work.