new boat, now trolling motor conenctions get hot

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yankyfan100

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I upgraded from my 12 foot jon to a 1432 semi v. First time out today and the connections from the battery to the motor are getting VERY hot. So hot that the rubber on them started melting. I thought it might be the circuit breaker but i took that out and it still got hot. The motor is a 45lb thrust varimax. The heat problem happens when im at full throttle, but the connection is only warmish-cool on half throttle.
Do you think the motor is not powerful enough for the boat and is causing the heat issues?
 
Sounds like too many amps for your wire size (do not know you wire size), but could be a number of things. Did you extend the wire or is it all factory wire? Could be a bad connection.

42lbs thrust should be sufficient. I have a 40 something on a 1448 that is very heavy and it will sling you out the boat if not careful (only happened twice :D ).
 
Im using stock gauge wire from the motor, and a splice to another stock gauge wire from an old motor. The total lengths are still the same that come with the motor. this same exact setup worked perfectly fine on the old boat...now im clueless.
 
What was the condition of the battery? as voltage drop the amp draw will increase, but the CB should trip if it is overloaded. I would look at heavier going to a heaver wire.
 
the battery was a brand new fully charged one. I agree on going to a heavier gauge but ive used this before on the old boat with no problems. If i go to a heavier gauge do i start that right where the wires comes out of the motor?
 
yankyfan100 said:
the battery was a brand new fully charged one. I agree on going to a heavier gauge but ive used this before on the old boat with no problems. If i go to a heavier gauge do i start that right where the wires comes out of the motor?
Click to expand...

I agree that heavier gage will help. I called minn kota a while back and reccomended 6 ga. for any extension. Might be a bad splice too. Try soldering the wires together if they are just butt spliced.
 
The wire size used is also dependent on length of the run, if you had to go a significantly further distance from the motor to the battery then you need to go up a wire size. Heat in a wire is a sign of loss and resistance. To compound the issue the more it heats up the more loss and resistance and current drawn from the battery which can also damage it.
 
shouldn't my circuit breaker of popped if the wires got this hot, to the point of smoking? the terminals on the breaker were hot too.
 
yankyfan100 said:
shouldn't my circuit breaker of popped if the wires got this hot, to the point of smoking? the terminals on the breaker were hot too.
Click to expand...

Depends ... If the breaker is 50 amps and the wire can only handle 40 amps it's going to get hot well before it blows the breaker. Either you have a bad connection or the wire is too small to handle the current. Cycling the motor on and off a lot can make the wires get hot before the breaker blows. Motors tend to draw considerably more than their rated current on start up and most breakers have a 'time delay' so they don't pop everytime the motor starts. So if you start and stop a lot the wire can get hot without popping the breaker. Couple that with a wire size that's on the fringe of it's current range and you get problems.

It doesn't happen very often but every once in a while a breaker will fail closed if the contacts weld themselves. So you not only have a breaker that doesn't blow, the pitted contacts have resistance (loss) and resistance (loss) = heat
 
did you use butt splices on this? If so tear it down and recheck the splices, upgrading to heat shrink splices and retaping the splices just to keep from shorts
 
my 2cents 1. solder all connections (except at battery!) 2.is it possible you have anything wrapped on the prop like fishing line? this could cause the motor to be working to hard....

good idea to upgrade wiring to recomended size,,,SOLDER....if you are using a trolling motor plug you could have resistance in it also....good luck...
 
longjohn119 said:
yankyfan100 said:
shouldn't my circuit breaker of popped if the wires got this hot, to the point of smoking? the terminals on the breaker were hot too.
Click to expand...

Depends ... If the breaker is 50 amps and the wire can only handle 40 amps it's going to get hot well before it blows the breaker. Either you have a bad connection or the wire is too small to handle the current. Cycling the motor on and off a lot can make the wires get hot before the breaker blows. Motors tend to draw considerably more than their rated current on start up and most breakers have a 'time delay' so they don't pop everytime the motor starts. So if you start and stop a lot the wire can get hot without popping the breaker. Couple that with a wire size that's on the fringe of it's current range and you get problems.

It doesn't happen very often but every once in a while a breaker will fail closed if the contacts weld themselves. So you not only have a breaker that doesn't blow, the pitted contacts have resistance (loss) and resistance (loss) = heat
Click to expand...
=D> nice answer....
 

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