Trolling motor help!
 

Went out the other day and my 70# trolling motor got hot then stopped working all together. I have a 22ft pathfinder I think I need to go up to a 80 pound,I had a minn Kota and loved it, should I go with the 80# copilot?

Thanks in advance for all the help.

101. 70-80 isn't that big of diff I don't think. Check UR plug by cutting wires and hardwiring

Your problem might be the circuit breaker that connects to the battery. Some of them have a "trip" button that you can reset.

If you are not getting any power to the TM, the circuit breaker may have gone bad. You can check the old one to see what size Amp it is and get a new one from an Auto parts store for $ 5.

OR....the control board could have burnt up. They cost $ 80 to 120 to buy on-line.

Check your wires and fuse. Many times wires/connections corrode and break. This is especially true when the wire is undersized to begin with. When you put the motor on you are passing the voltage thru a smaller path (Choking it if you will) This causes heat which further causes more problems. Think about the flow of electricity as water when you constrict it you get less flow but with electricty additionally when you constrict it you get heat.

That trolling motor should work fine for your needs. I recommend you rewire from your batteries to the trolling motor and check/replace your plug and fuses/breakers. I use breakers on all of my trolling motors. Use bigger wire than required and solder you connections. If you do that you will not likely ever have another problem. The answer is not going to a bigger trolling motor. If you do go to a bigger trolling motor you'll need to rewire anyways. If you go ahead and rewire it now and size it for a 36volt motor if you still not happy you'll already have it wired for a bigger trolling motor.

The motor went out in the trolling motor I believe, I could smell that electric burning only from the trolling motor, went under the console and everything seems to be getting power.

Good point. A corroded wire will also cause to circuit breaker to trip. Does your Trolling motor start working again after it "cools" down for a couple of minutes? If so, this is the circuit breaker "resetting" [some do this] after it cools down.

He would have to rewire his boat for 36v to put a 101. Pathfinders are light boats an 80 will work just fine. Go for the ipilot instead of the copilot though

Mine did the same thing about a week ago and it was the fuse that connects to the battery on positive terminal easiest and cheapest place to start

x2 on soldering connections. I solder and shrink wrap then liquid electric tape over the shrink of every single wire splice I can on my boat. Using conventional butt splices like a lot of boat dealerships do when rigging new boats for customers is a recipe for a problem. A butt splice will corrode and fail when exposed to salty water/salty air. Its just a question of when its gonna fail.

Had the same problem with my 70lb Minn Kota Riptide. The 70 lb trolling motors have plastic brush holders and when run at high speed for long periods of time will cause the brush holder to melt to the brushes. The 80lb and 101lb have metal brushes holders and does not have this problem. You can change the brushes and brush holders for around 20 bucks and do it yourself fairly quick. I keep a spare set in the boat

I had a 80lb thrust co pilot on my 22' pathfinder. Even though they are light boats, they are still wind catchers at 22' long and 8' 6" wide. It was fine till you had a good wind and a strong current. Sold it and moved to the 101. Very good move.

What parts actually was heating up? The head assembly?

Thanks everyone for the help,marshrat the head assembly is what's messed up, before it went out when I would put it on the 5 setting ( fastest setting)
It went slow and when I put it on the first setting ( slowest setting) it went fast I think it's just went out.