Trolling motor wiring harness

[KenP]

Last Saturday while fishing a tournament the battery for my trolling motor combusted. I’ve had zero issues with it and  the battery is just outside warranty date. The negative wire got toasted but the positive looks fine. Can the negative be spliced for a quick fix until the fall? 

 

It looks like it was spliced by the previous owner 10yrs ago.

 

 

[TheRodFather]

Looks to me that the positive wire got toasted and the neg is fine......?  

[KenP]

1 hour ago, TheRodFather said:

Looks to me that the positive wire got toasted and the neg is fine......?  

I didn’t have the photo in front of me and got them mixed up. I haven’t had much time to look into it. Any idea if this can be spliced?

[jaimeastin]

First... Why did it combust?  What is the trolling motor thrust?  What is the length of the wire run?  What is the wire guage?

 

Of course you can splice it...  But it could happen again, and maybe in a different spot that you can't see.  

 

Thankfully, it looks like it only burned in-between the fuse/breaker and the battery.  This means that for the most part, all fail-safes worked and the whole wire should be good to go ?

 

What appears to have happened is the wire gauge between fuse/breaker could not have been good enough or the breaker/fuse was too high.  

 

You can replace the wire at the original splice, the yellow crimp by uncrimping it.  Use the correct gauge red+(positive) wire to connect a breaker or fuse that will then connect to the battery.

 

Difference between breaker and fuse is that a breaker will pop or break the connection, but can be manually or automatically reset, that is if it just doesn't completely fail.  A fuse is burned and done... You have to replace the fuse so carry extra.

 

In this case, you can use a fuse to easily step up or down to find the proper amperage to protect... Check with manufacturer or look online for information on their website.  Minnkota has a lot of information on this topic.

 

Hope it helps

[TheRodFather]

The fuse and pigtails that were spliced onto the wire at some point in time looks a little small to me.  But like Jamie said, find out what amp draw your TM has and size the wire accordingly.  I suggest going bigger with the wire when in doubt.  Going bigger will only cost a little more, and you won't ever have to worry about it again, or ever run new wire when you upgrade TM in the future.

 

If you own a Tracker, they are notorious for keeping costs down and installing wire that is barely adequate at best, If you are running the TM hard, or upsize, the wire won't handle it.

[sully420]

You need to re wire the battery to the TM with lower gauge wire I would suggest 8 gauge.