Trolling motor wire question

So when I bought my boat it came with a MinnKota powerdrive motor on it and it worked fine for the most part but when I would crank the speed up to a certain point it would kill the motor and you would have to unplug it and plug it back in then it would work fine again until you wanted to speed up and it would happen again. So I thought it was a motor problem and I really wanted to upgrade anyway so I bought a Motorguide XI5 a couple years ago. Motor works awesome but it does the same thing. If I speed it up to much it will kill it then it will restart on it’s own. What do you guys think could be the problem? My thought is the wiring from the plug to the battery is to light of a gauge and can’t handle the load. But that’s just a guess.

My guess is you are overloading the circuit breaker. Do you have one in-line on a red wire near the battery? If so what size is it?

What size wire do you currently have and what is the recommended fuse size for your new trolling motor?

Is there a circuit breaker or fuse installed on the red wire anywhere? If the wire was too small and there wasn’t a fuse you could start to over heat the wire (the wire would get really hot and potentially melt the insulation).

I don’t believe there is a fuse. And I’m not sure what wire size it is. It’s whatever came on the boat. The boat is in storage so I don’t have a way to check that until I can go get it out for the year.

It sounds to me like your circuit breaker is too small or just bad.
To start, you want to check to make sure that your circuit breaker is the correct size. What size XI5 do you have and what size is the circuit breaker on the positive wire going to your trolling motor (it should be located near the battery and should have a number on it…..maybe a 30, 40, 50 or 60)? If you can’t find anything near the battery, pull the plug out if you can and see if you see anything like a circuit breaker on the plug end. You never know if it was originally installed in the correct place.
You’ll have to find the circuit breaker (if it has one) and see what size it is to troubleshoot your problem.

I don’t remember seeing a circuit breaker up front. There’s one in the back but nothing up front.

Jeff Schomaker wrote:

I don’t remember seeing a circuit breaker up front. There’s one in the back but nothing up front.

From what you are describing as the problem, it sounds like the breaker is popping.

Typically but not always, the breaker is on the red wire near the power source. Try and locate that and it’s size and determine the wire size. Once we have those two pieces on info, we can look at what Motorguide is requiring for those two.

I agree Francis. I’m guessing that he has a self resetting circuit breaker that’s too small. I’m not sure we’d really have to know the wire size and unless stamped on the wires, the size won’t be easy to determine. The breaker size and the size motor should do it to start. We’ll then be able to determine which gauge wire he’ll need for the amp draw required by his motor.

Jeff, What make and model of boat do you have and do you know if the wires running from your batteries to your trolling motor plug are factory? Have you ever noticed if your trolling motor plug gets hot to the touch, especially after running it at the higher speeds that cause your motors to stop?

I’ve melted a Minn Kota plug on the boat side before because the connection was dirty. The breaker should be very close to the battery post. The wire should be at least 8 ga. and I’d take the plugs apart to make sure the copper isn’t black or shows signs of corrosion.

The boat is a 2001 Alumacraft Lunker 165 and I honestly never looked it over to see if it is a factory plug or not. And I have not noticed any heat coming from the plug or wires. It’s gonna be about a month before I go get the boat. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for all the suggestions guys!