Help! Lighting, trolling motor problem!

[delmonte67]

I ran all my lights in the boat (5) to a 15 amp fuse then to the battery (12V) I have let these lights run for hours when I first installed them, never a problem. I hook my trolling motor (30lb.thrust) to the same battery and it blew the light fuse. How could 2 totally seperate things hooked to the same battery effect the fuse? I replaced the fuse - no light problem, I havent ran the two together again to see if it repeats. Any input would help, thanks D.

 

[Waterwings]

Sorry to hear of the lighting problems. I'm not an electrical type, but someone will chime-in and give some assistance I'm sure.

 

[shamoo]

I'm with WW when it comes to understanding electrical stuff, if you dont get an answer here, stop by a marina and tell them what happened, maybe you'll have to go to a 30 amp fuse.

I'm going to guess, maybe when the wires for the lights touched the wires for the trolling motor it made them one unit, so when the lights are on its cool but when the motor starts to draw its juice its more than 15 amps and the fuse blows. Like i said its just a guess.

 

[LarryA]

I want to watch this thread. I had training on automotive electrical and this doesn't make much sense to me. Assuming that there are no shorts in the lighting circuit, I just can't think what would cause the light fuse to blow when you use the trolling motor. My first thought was that the trolling motor put a surge through the lighting line but I'm not sure that could happen. If so, then different fuses and circuits would be pretty much useless. Interesting, I'm curious to see what the problem turns out to be.
Hope you get it figured out and post the results.

 

[jrfan88]

I feel your pain! Electrical troubles can be extremely confusing and I'm no expert. Here's what I'd do: Check the wiring on your lights and make sure you don't have a cut(s) in the insulation first. Then, check your lights for corrosion or damage. I'm saying this without knowing how the wiring was done of course, but with electrical issues you always want to start with the obvious. My other suggestion is: The cause could also be that there was too much load on the circuit when you flipped the motor on, if the battery was discharged and/or if the lighting was more than just nav lights and a couple of courtesy lights. The fuse is the weakest part of the circuit and it would blow with too much load/not enough power. It's the same with a home. If you try to run an air compressor and welder on a 20 amp circuit, the breaker will trip. But, if you run just the compressor, everything is fine. I can't give you the scientific explantion behind that, but I've seen it before. That's all I know, good luck.

 

[SVNET]

1. make sure none of the lights wires are in contact with the metal body of the boat at any point.

It could be that the motor is shorting the lights when it becomes in contact with the boat metal, but very unlikely.

2. Second make sure you are connecting all the lights in parallel to the motor.

I think this is what is affecting you, you have the lights in series with the motor, thus running the motor through the fuse and the motor consume much more current then the fuse is rated for.

Hopefully this picture can help, your light circuits might be more complicated then the single bulb that I illustrated, but the concept remains.

 

[Anchor Chain]

I'm with SVNET. sounds like your pulling to many amps.
If you want to fuse the TM its gonna need a bigger fuse/circuit breaker and its very own circuit. I'm a multi fuse person. when i hook up lights i'm gonna have several fuses. separate running lights, and deck lights and also spot lights, FF ,and so on

 

[SlimeTime]

I ran all my lights in the boat (5) to a 15 amp fuse then to the battery (12V) I have let these lights run for hours when I first installed them, never a problem. I hook my trolling motor (30lb.thrust) to the same battery and it blew the light fuse. How could 2 totally seperate things hooked to the same battery effect the fuse? I replaced the fuse - no light problem, I havent ran the two together again to see if it repeats. Any input would help, thanks D.

You weren't specific.....but I'm assuming your TM isn't being powered through the 15 amp fuse? You just stated "I hook my trolling motor (30lb.thrust) to the same battery".....

ST

 

[LarryA]

I agree, check your wiring method. Each item needs to have a individual circuit.

 

[Zum]

I didn't get,from what I've read,that he hooked it up into his lighting circuit.
If he did that is his problem.
You said it blew the fuse?Did your TM still work when this fuse blew?
I know your lights didn't work but if it was one circuit(and I don't think it is)your TM shouldn't have worked either.
I'm kinda stumped,don't think it should of done it,maybe just a conicendence.I see you tried your lights again,it would be hard for me not to try the TM with them,it's only a fuse.

Just wondering were your lights on when the fuse blew?and do you have a switch for your lights?

 

[shamoo]

My theory. he had the lights hooked up to the battery, when he hooked the trolling motor cables to the battery touching the light wires it might have made one circuit. Lights on, trolling motor turned on blowing the fuse and now with no lights the trolling motor is direct to the battery and therefore should run, right? When you find out let us know.

 

[SVNET]

I agree, very little information is known about the setup for any of us to be able to point out the problem.

My diagram were just a basic reference so that he can go out to the boat and fetch the problem.

The first time we took my boat out we thought the we got screwed on the TM, it would not start, only to find out that it was a loose connection at the battery terminal, we had hand tightent it and that was not enought.

Good luck!

 

[russ010]

it sounds like you are getting wires touching somewhere - reverse current flow.

Hook up your lights to the wing nut bolts on your battery (if it has it) then hook the trolling motor to the main studs.

If it blows again, then it sounds like you've got a bad ground somewhere (this could be inside the TM housing). Also make sure that your positive wire is not touching the boat anywhere.

Are you running the wires down the same path to the lights and TM? Like, are all of your wires touching each other? It only takes a nick in your lines for current to escape.

 

[SlimeTime]

maybe you'll have to go to a 30 amp fuse.

That's the last thing you want to do. A particular gauge wire can only handle so many amps, exceeding that heats, melts, and burns the wiring. That's the purpose of a fuse/breaker, to kill power prior to an electrical overload & fire. Over-fusing is no different than no fuse at all.

ST

 

[shamoo]

Dont, I repeat, DONT go to a 30 amp fuse.

 

[delmonte67]

Thanks for all the replys fellas, sorry I've been working alot of O.T. lately. I havent had time to try the T.M. And lights together again on the same battery. Here's the setup- altogether I installed 3 LED lights and 2 courtesy lights and a 12v plug, I ran 2 LED lights to a toggle switch, 2 courtesy lights to a toggle switch, one rear storage LED light to a toggle switch, and one 12 volt plug-in for my spotlight to a toggle switch. All black wires from all of the lights and 12v plug in were spliced together and went straight to the battery, the red wires from each light(or 2) went to a toggle which had 2 prongs on each toggle (red wire in on one prong from light, red wire out from other prong to battery) all red wires from toggle switches were spliced together and then ran to a 15 amp fuse then to the battery. 30 lb. thrust T.M. hooked to same battery ( the T.M. is CLAMPED onto the pegs, the light wires are hooked to the WING NUTS on the same battery. Both ran at the same time that day, blew the fuse for some odd reason. Hope that did'nt confuse anyone, hope someone can figure this out for me #-o Thanks again! D.

 

[SlimeTime]

That sounds like an awful lot on one circuit. I'd consider splitting them up into another circuit with a second fuse. What size wiring are you using, and did you run each wire back to the battery or are you jumping from one fixture to another?

You can always connect an ampmeter to thinks & find out if you're exceeding the fuse rating.

ST

 

[russ010]

are you using atleast 12 gauge wire for all of your runs to your lights?

 

[Anchor Chain]

I"m with slimetime , you have to much on 1 fuse. needs to be at least 3 may be four that way you can easily find the bad circuit. i would probably go at least 15 amp on each one

 

[delmonte67]

UPDATE! I've ran both together a bunch of times, never happened again! Must have been a freak thing - the one time, thanks for all the advice! D. 8)