Trolling Motor Plug Mount

[Bob Landry]

Wrapping up my TM installation on my G3 1860. This is the mount that houses the TM plug. The plug is mounted on a piece of King Starboard, the wired terminated in crimp-om eye connectors and shrink wrapped. The wires go to a Blue Sea dual Power Post. The trolling motor wires will also attach to this power post and it will be mounted under the deck.

Motorguide says to use #6 wire if the wiring is going to be extended past what comes with the motor so, this is the only correct way to connect #8 and #6 wires in a marine application. Note, I said "Marine", and the home type stuff at Home Depot doesn't count. There are no available step-down butt connectors for wire this large and MotorGuide does not recommend soldering. If you were able to get wire this large hot enough to flow solder, you would have long burned up the insulation on the wire and it would be a sloppy looking job.. Like I said, this is a marine application, and I'm sure someone will respond with how they did it with home improvement stuff. Good luck with that. The wire from the trolling motor going to the plug is #6, as is the wire molded into the plug. They were joined using #6 crimp on butt connectors with the plastic jacket removed, each connection shrink wrapped with adhesive lined heat shrink, then the entire assembly was covered with shrink wrap.

 

[RivRunR]

Very clean work, and good advice!

 

[FuzzyGrub]

I generally try to make the gauge change-over at the plug. I attach the existing trolling motor to a plug, and the the larger to the recptacle. Usually there is about 4' of wire which is plenty to get to a convienent location for a plug. If I needed longer, I'd replace it back into the motor, vs adding another connection that can corroad or cause problems.