Minnkota Goes POOF!

I was rocking a walleye drift with my Terrova yesterday for about 20 minutes – you know, on for 5 seconds off for 2 minutes – when I herd a sizzling sound then a POOF followed by SMOKE coming from my Terrova’s base. Luckily I was right next to it and immediately unplugged it’s power chord.

This is a 2 year old Terrova with the I-Pilot add-on. Gosh I hope it’s a cheap fix cuz my wife was with me when it happened and asked if I just blew $1700 on a piece of junk.

Please help my confidence in Minnkota by telling me it’s a $20 fix at a Minnkota Repair Center when I get home from my long weekend.

$20 fix

U b lucky if it is that

could have fried the i-pilot and who knows what else

keep us posted on what it was

3 year warranty IIRC…. Keep us updated

Yesterday I had an idea. The motor went poof while turning left on the foot pedal. I thought maybe I blew a pedal board and that the remote for the I pilot would still work. So I disconnected the pedal, plugged in the power and got smoke immediately even before turning anything on.
Yikes – Smoke on the water? Not good.

Will take in whe I get home.

Keep us posted on what it was. I just bot one.

***** UPDATE *****

Dropped off motor to an authorized Minnkota repair facility.

He said it sounds like I blew a system board, but he’d never seen that happen on a Terrova before. He says the only time he fixes Terrovas is due to human error, NOT Minnkota quality problems.

Bad news. My Terrova is out of warranty…. this might sting a little…..

Know more next week.

I’d lay a hard 20 dollar bill on the table you built up too many amps, built up too much heat and cooked your main control board. Check your battery terminals and clean them til they are shiney, and if not using one, get an autostop fuse. I cooked a board years ago due to corrosion building up, which leads to increased amps due to the resistance build up of going thru all the corrosion–this leads to heat which leads to cooking electronics.
Hopefully, you did not cook too much. Check your wiring for shorts while you are at it, that will do it too.

good luck from a fellow motor cooker-now I clean all my connections 2-4 times per year.

Where can you find an autostop fuse? How big of one do you need for a 55 pound Minn kota?

Cabelas, Gander or even Fleet Farm. check with Minn Kota to see what amperage they recommend.

Is that the same as a 60 amp circut breaker? Cabella’s has one from Minn-Kota for 40 bucks

Great Idea Doc, thanks.

***** FINAL UPDATE : *****
Minnkota Service Center called and said my motor has been fixed.
It seems that a short in the foot pedal caused shorting on the system board and fried it.
The parts came in, he fixed the motor and all appears good as new. I need to come up with $435.00 so I can pick it up.

New foot pedal, new system board, installed and tested.
All for 1/3 the cost of a Brand New Motor.

I don’t know if that is a good thing or not.
I plan on picking it up this afternoon.

Lesson Learned: I knew that the pedal was not working 100% properly so I took it in to be repaired. The parts were $20 but needed to be shipped in. Meanwhile I had a fishing trip planned for Lake Francis Case, so I picked up the pedal which worked at 85% and used it for 10 days and then was to return it to be fixed. Well that $20 problem exploded into this. – Note to self – Be More Patient!

Duuuuuuude….. that a fair bit of coin….. yikes…. I guess i’ll be doing any repair work on my own…. so far so lucky.

Never heard of a foot pedal doing that, but you learn something new every day-glad you got it fixed.

Did you take it to Pat Hayes in Omaha?

Yes I did.

He is a friend of mine and good at his job little to no waiting