Splice Question

[Mojo^]

Here is the scenario: My battery will be located up front under the forward seat. I have a transom mount trolling motor and will be using a male/female trolling motor plug to disconnect it for removal. The trolling motor and plug both have 10 ga. wire. From what I have read, I will need to use 6 ga. wire to run from the battery, through a 60 amp circuit breaker and back to the trolling motor plug. The distance from the battery to the trolling motor plug is about 11 feet. My question is; how do you splice 6 ga. wire into 10 ga. wire? Do I really need 6 ga. wire?

 

[Bob Landry]

You need 6ga wire. The instructions for my Motor Guide said to use 6ga without reference to the size of the TM. The distance is 22' since you have to include pos & neg, and 10ga is to small for that much current. I would also check the instructions for the correct size circuit breaker. 60A seems a little heavy. The purpose of the C/B is to protect the wire, not the trolling motor and bigger is not better.
As far as splicing, the correct way to do it is to use ring terminals for the two different sizes of wire and use something like a Blue Sea Power Post to make the junction. I don't know of anyone who makes step-down butt connectors to mate those two sizes of wire. Someone is even going to pop up here and say they just soldered theirs together and wrapped the whole thing with electrical tape. It may work, but it's certainly not the correct way of doing it. Home Depot seems to be a popular source for devices used to splice wire and cable, but I don't recommend them for the marine environment. One thing that I have noticed in reading threads here about upgrades and installations, and that is, cheap seems to prevail most of the time.

 

[Mojo^]

Thought 60 amp was a bit on the beefy side as well but that's what Minn Kota recommended so that's what I went with.

 

[Bob Landry]

Well, if they feel that you need 60A of current protection, then I would definitely use 6ga wire. Also, use AWG, not SAE.

 

[Wallijig]

If connections are not needed to be taken apart, I solder mine. Wrap with a quality tape then coat with liquid electrical tape. Good solid connection and not have to worry about corrosion.