Trolling Motor wiring

[Chris Havoc]

After reading the post by spectator earlier about his trolling motor crapping out.....I went out to check my own wiring and was unable to locate a fuse or breaker anywhere. As far as I can tell it is wired directly to the batteries. What kind of fuse/and or breaker do I need? Also, would it be better to put it near the batteries or what?

[LaAngler]

50 amp breaker on the hot wire near the batteries, it needs to stay away from the saltwater. Once they start to corrode they wont hold the load.

can save you from a boat fire.

[Chris Havoc]

Thanks Bruce!

[LaAngler]

i think you can splice and add the breaker in the jumper on a 24V system also, but just breaking the hot lead from the motor works on 12, 24, 36

I always carry a wire with alligator clips on both ends, just in case my breaker goes down I can bypass it and not waste fishing time.

[Chris Havoc]

I already have a short set of jumper cables in case my cranking batteries are down...I'm going to splice the breaker into the main hot ...thanks again, I'm glad someone brought this up before I fried my brand new motor!

[all star rod]

You want to put one on the battery for your outboard motor. I have one on mine. This will trip before it shorts out the items that run of your starting battery.