Got a new deep cycle battery for the trolling motor. When the motor is running at full power, it act like it cuts off. ie it runs for a few seconds, cuts off, runs a few seconds, cuts off (continually). This only happens at or near “full throttle”. The rest of the throttle range is smooth.
any ideas?
SeaPro SV1900 CC
What kind of motor (make/thrust)? Did it do this before the new battery was installed? What gauge wire is running from the battery to the motor?
Sounds to me like a voltage drop from either bad connections, weak battery, or underspec’ed wire. A 52-pounds, 12v motor pulls about 50-60 amps at full throttle. Probably need at least 6-gauge wire to meet specifications (but I’ve seen factories rig them with 10g).
BTW, I recently had my inshore boat in the shop to investigate a cranking problem that developed out of nowhere after years of dependable service. The mechanic discovered that the factory had installed underspec’ed wire from the main battery’s Perko switch to the eninge. I would never have even thought to check that because I would assume that the factory would know better, but I guess mistakes can happen anywhere by anyone.
Gotcha Covered,
Lee Strickland
Strickland Marine Insurance, Inc.
843-795-1000 / 800-446-1862
I think Lee has hit the nail on the head.
I’ll have to check the cables to see the voltage. Its the stock cables in the sea pro 19’ bay boat. this happens whether both positive terminals are connected to the battery or one. this is a new “wally world” battery. I didn’t have the problem with the original trojan battery.
SeaPro SV1900 CC
Again, it’s not necessarily the cables. It might be the battery’s capacity, its charge level, or the connections. When you say “both positive terminals are connected to the battery”, what do you mean? Why would there be two positive terminals connecting to the one battery? Are you running both the engine and the TM off of the same battery? If not, then what is the other positive lead powering? If so, are you sure this is the right battery for the TM (deep cycle with the proper amp-hour and reserve capacity)? You don’t want to be running a TM on a cranking battery. Like Loosewire said, tell us what your configuration is, and we’ll be better able to help.
(BTW, Trojan makes a great battery. For a good alternative, Stowaway’s “deep cycle marine” is one of the best TM batteries on the market.)
Gotcha Covered,
Lee Strickland
Strickland Marine Insurance, Inc.
843-795-1000 / 800-446-1862
I think he’s wired parallel, and doesn’t know it yet?
…Politicians aren’t the “Oldest Profession”, but the results are still the same!!!
Check the connections at the plug. I’m assuming you had to add a plug to the trolling motor wire.
quote:
Originally posted by Mixed NutzI think he’s wired parallel, and doesn’t know it yet?
…Politicians aren’t the “Oldest Profession”, but the results are still the same!!!
You may be right. That would explain the “both positive terminals” comment, but there would be another battery in that case, but yeah, if he’s got a dead battery rigged in parallel with the new one–I think you know where I’m going with this.
Cees, don’t take this as a “duh” question (or as implying anything “duh” on your part), but are you sure there isn’t another battery rigged in parallel with the one you just installed (with the positive terminals of each battery hooked together and the negatives hooked together)? Your mentioning that “both positive terminals” has me wondering if what Mixed Nutz said is the case here.
Gotcha Covered,
Lee Strickland
Strickland Marine Insurance, Inc.
843-795-1000 / 800-446-1862
Hey, Ceesfishing,
Ironically, I discovered today that my trolling motor wasn’t working also! LOL. So, I measured the volts at the recepticle (female), and I was getting 25V, so I removed the male plug from the TM cable, skipped the circuit entirely, and connected the bare cables to the battery terminals. It worked, so I’m thinking I have a bad connector, just as Ithica suggested may be the culprit in your case. Try this method on yours. First, disconnect everything else from your battery (and ascertain whether or not you are in parrallel, too). If you have a meter, measure the voltage at the battery, just to make sure you’re not totally wasting your time with a bad battery. Next, measure the voltage at the female recepticle. If you don’t have a meter, just skip that step. If you have a meter and it indicates the proper voltage at the recepticle, proceed. If you measure insufficient voltage at the recipticle, then you have a cabling problem, a breaker problem, or a connection problem at a terminal or at the recepticle (although this part of the test might not pan out since you’re not putting a load on the circuit). If you DO have proper voltage at the recepticle, take the leads loose from the TM plug, connect the bare leads directly to the battery, and turn the motor on high (or leave it on high and just touch the leads to the battery terminals). If it works, you have eliminated the battery and the motor as potential culprits. If it does not work, you have elminated everything else and have established that it’s either the motor or the battery (or the TM’s pigtail, which CAN wick up water and corrode over time).
I hope this helps. I thought it was funny that I had to replace my TM plug today, right after discussing this.
Gotcha Covered,
Lee Strickland
Strickland Marine Insurance, Inc.
843-795-1000 / 800-446-1862
Trolling motors SHOULD be wired with a thermal auto-reset breaker. If the breaker is too small an amperage rating OR has gotten weak - that sounds like the problem. Trips out at high load, resets, trips out again.
186 Bone Flats Boat
140 Suzuki fourstroke
It’s a good idea to check for that; however, if that were the case here, it should have exhibited the same problem with the old battery, too, because the motor is theoretically going to pull the same amps from either battery, and Ceesfishing said it didn’t do it until he put in the new battery. So, I don’t think it’s a breaker (but it could be).
Also, all the TM circuits I’ve seen had manual-reset breakers (usually the ones with the reset lever and a test button). I’ve only seen the auto-reset breakers used on what are supposed to be “high-reliability” cicruits, like Verado’s power steering system. Incidentally, they were a problem until Mercury finally published a recall, upgrading the spec from 40 amps to 90 amps on the PS circuit. Big difference. Until the recall was issued, the auto-reset breakers defeated their own purpose, and manual breakers would have been a LOT better to have. Steering home 50 miles on a 3-5-foot sea with three outboards and no power steering ain’t fun. I’m not sure how Mercury overlooked that one.
Regardless, it’s still a very good idea to check for a thermal auto-breaker and test the motor with it out of the loop (and/or do the same with any breaker, or anything else in the circuit), as I mentioned above. It it’s a breaker, or anything else like that, jumping the motor straight to the battery terminals will account for it in the test. They definitely can crap out without notice. Also, check the terminals on any breakers you have, Cees. They’re probably rusted up because boat manufacturers often mount the manual ones right on the floor without any grease on the terminals. What a great time to move the breaker, BTW. Hint, hint.
Oh, be aware that some auto-reset breakers are attached directly to the battery terminals and look like tabs with little boxes on them. If you have that, bypass it in the tests. If you jump the TM straight to the batteries with the right-gauge wire, and it still doesn’t work, it’s none of the above. If it does work, then step it back logic
you should definitely check the receptacle and plug. also check the fuse or breaker that is inline with the trolling motor. often underfused will cause the leads to overheat and melt or burn out the positive contacts and cause bad connection. depending on the thrust you should be using at minimum 87 amp hour battery. like gotchacovered mentioned send us your configuration and more info will follow.
“hook em and hold on”
Eagle One
07 Shearwater Z2200
225Vmax
Thanks for all the comments. I’ll give everything a good cleaning and start measuring the voltage.
The “both positive terminals” comment referred to I have 2 positive wires in the console that run up to the receptacle. I am guessing this is to allow for 2 batteries / 24 volt trolling motor. I tested using a single cable both cables. I do have the little box circuit breakers. I took a picture of them, they are labeled Shortstop.
SeaPro SV1900 CC
In order to get 24 volts from 2 each 12 volt batteries you must wire the batteries together positive to negative (in series) prior to taking leads (one positive,one negative)to receptacle. Do you have a 24 volt trolling motor? You are making this way too hard.
186 Bone Flats Boat
140 Suzuki fourstroke
quote:
Originally posted by ceesfishingThanks for all the comments. I’ll give everything a good cleaning and start measuring the voltage.
The “both positive terminals” comment referred to I have 2 positive wires in the console that run up to the receptacle. I am guessing this is to allow for 2 batteries / 24 volt trolling motor. I tested using a single cable both cables. I do have the little box circuit breakers. I took a picture of them, they are labeled Shortstop.
SeaPro SV1900 CC
Oh, I see what you’re saying. You have two positive wires connected to the female recepticle and running into the battery bay. I’m not sure why they sometimes rig the recepticles with the extra positive lead, but I think it might be for older trolling motors with 12v-24v switching capability (not sure about that, but if you had that kind of motor, you’d have three leads coming from the trolling motor to the plug). Long story short, if you have a standard 12v or 24v motor (i.e., if you only have TWO leads coming out of your trolling motor to the plug), then that extra red wire is not supposed to be hooked to a battery, Cees. You should be hooking up one red and one black (and have a short jumper wire from + on one battery to - on the other if you have a 24v system). The rest is as G8tr said–if you have a 12v motor, you hook up one battery; if you have 24v, you have two in series (with + and - linked from battery to battery), and you connect the negative wire to the - terminal on one battery and the + wire to the + on the other. Either way, you only have one positive and one negative wire going to the recepticle (two wires, total).
Can you confirm that you have a 12v motor versus a 24v for us? That would really help.
Gotcha Covered,
Lee Strickland
Strickland Marine Insurance, Inc.
843-795-1000