Trolling motor just stops

[zpalffy]

I have a minkota edge 45 lb thrusting trolling motor bow mounted. The boat is a very light weight fiberglass 14.5 ft bass boat so light I can push it around on the trailer by myself. The battery was fully charged I checked it on the meter and I have an automatic charger that shuts off when fully charged. This past Monday I had the boat out on the lake with 2 other adults one weighted about 100 lbs and the other about 130 lbs I myself weight 170 lbs so I had a total person weight of about 400 lbs. I was out for a few hours and I had the trolling motor set on speed 4 and set for moentum. After a few hours we decided to head back to the dock so I set the speed to 5 and set it for continuous. On the way back to the dock the trolling motor just stopped so I unplugged the foot pedal from the outlet waited a second or 2 and then plugged it back in. The motor began working again but you could tell that it was not performing well. Then it stopped again and I had to unplug it and plug it back in again. Lucky we make it back to the dock but barely. When I got home I checked the battery and it read 12.5 volts still a lot of juice left. Could it be a problem in the circuit board of the foot pedal ? This has never happened before. The unit is about 4 years old any help here would certainly be appreciated. I tried to call minkota but got nothing but a busy signal ALL day.

 

[ondarvr]

Could be a bad connection, bad battery, circuit board, switch, motor itself, etc, you'll need to do some trouble shooting.

 

[mike_i]

measure the battery voltage while you have the trolling motor running. the 12.5 volts your measuring may drop to less than what the motor needs to run, how old is your battery? we're assuming all connections are good and clean.

 

[gm280]

Does the trolling motor run on any other speed setting? You say it stopped on speed 5. Does it work on speed 1, 2, 3 and 4? I ask because some trolling motors use speed coil for the different speeds. So if it runs on other speeds, you could have a speed coil issue...If that is how yours is set up. JMHO

 

[zpalffy]

thank you everyone for responding the battery and the trolling motor is no more than 3 years old. When I got home I did check battery with the motor running at it was still at 12.5 volts although there was no real load on the motor because the boat was on the trailer. The motor spun freely at speed of 5. About the connections I can say that the nut connections to the battery terminals were only hand tight I could loosen them with my hands I have since used a wrench and tightened them.

Thank you

 

[zpalffy]

No Title

I may have found the culprit I took Ondarvr's advice and did some trouble shooting. I pulled the battery cable and pulled the battery out. That is when I discovered the circuit breaker. The circuit breaker was old and rusted I tried to get the off of the oles but one of them was rusted on too much and I ended up breaking the end off of the ole that connects to the batter. As I pulled the circuit breaker out I look at it and was a Cole Hersee 30 Amp circuit breaker. I guess the person who had the boat before me and installed it. I looked in the minkota manual and I called them and found out that the 45 LB thrusting motor that I have requires a 50 amp circuit breaker. I ordered a new circuit breaker and I fixed the wire end that goes on the circuit breaker. Now I am waiting on part then I can test it out to see if it was the circuit breaker or if I have a different problem.

 

[zpalffy]

After looking at the minn kota manual based on the motor thrust and the length of the wire run from the battery the wire should be 6 gauge what was in there was 10 gauge. So I pulled a new wire and have a 50 amp circuit breaker on the 6 gauge wire. All I have left to do is make the new connection at the foot pedal connection from 6 gauge wire to 10 gauge wire. I also had the battery load tested. Will see how this goes now.

 

[gm280]

Well that is good news. I bet that breaker was your problem. They are not sealed well and water and dirt can easily get inside compromising their ability to work correctly. I bet your new total setup will work like a charm. :thumb:

 

[zpalffy]

as you know the only real way to test is is to get out on the water !