12 volt minn kota 55 pound v drive trolling motor

[jlittle100]

i have a minn kota 55 pound v drive on my 1991 tracker pro 17, it came with a 30 pound motor guide, i am using the original wiring and the original 30 amp fuse, everyone says the 55 pound motor should be blowing that fuse very easily, but it never has, does that mean my motor is not going up to speed, it does deem slow for such a big motor. it is the 12 volt version by the way. please help, any suggestions.....

 

[Barnacle_Bill]

A 30 amp breaker is too small for that motor. What size wire is going to it?

 

[Silvertip]

Unless the motor is operated at its fastest speed for a prolonged period, a 30 amp breaker may hold. But it really needs proper wire gauge which is determined by the distance from the battery to the motor. The circuit breaker then needs to be sized accordingly (check your owners manual or the Minnkota web site).

 

[Expidia]

For $31 for the 60 amp Minn Kota circuit breaker, its cheap insurance. Its a little pricey, but very well made and water proof and resettable by pushing a bottom on it.. I bought it to use with my new Terrova ipilot 55 thrust. When I bought my rig new in 2007 the first thing I did was to replace the troller motor connections to the batteries with 8 gauge wire.

If your wire gauge is smaller than 8 those wires could get very hot. But the 30 amp breaker should pop if those wires were running hot. Also, if you get your prop tangled in the weeds and the breaker is old it might not pop and you could burn out the MK troller. Thats why I say a new breaker is cheap insurance.
The old breaker I used with a MK 36 transom mount was a 40 Amp and it was rusty and the reset button was frozen. The MK model as I said is waterproof. my old one was not. You get what you pay for with boating accesories. The open water is one place you don't need equipment failures just to save a few bucks.