Bow Mount Question

[Rich]

I bought a bow mount trolling motor for the Filth Tank last fall - unfortunately too late to actually test it. It's a Minn Kota "Edge" 55lb thrust 12V motor. The O-Clips (I'm certainly no electrician) it came with that you would normally hook to a car battery are far too small, and there's a warning tag on the positive wire that says not all boats are wired for this motor, blah blah.. need a class 5 circuit breaker of some sort. My assumption is, that is only for boats that are wired back to front?

 

My real question is, will it do any damage if I stick U-Clips on there and connect it direct to my deep cycle 12V like I have with my other motors in the past? Common sense tells me, 12V motor/12V battery should hook direct just fine. Just want to make sure, because of that warning sheet attached to the motor. Don't want to blow $700 in a stupid mistake when all I had to do was connect a breaker. lol

[SBCregal]

dont wire it straight to the battery, DEFINITELY wire in a fuse of the correct amperage rating.

[Rich]

OK. Thanks for the heads up. That's why I asked before hooking it up. lol

[SBCregal]

np

 

make sure you carry an extra fuse or two as well. the circuit breaker would be able to be reset if it happened to pop, cant do that with a fuse though.

 

ryan

[mercman]

My transom mout came with aligator clips to connect directly to the battery.If they say to use circut breaker, use it for sure.Mine must have it built in, yours doesnt most likely.

 

 

[Roy]

Paul, yours does NOT have a built in circuit breaker. And, in my opinion, alligator clips are useless. You'll need a 40 amp breaker on yours wired as close to the battery as possible.

[Billy Bob]

Go to a NAPA dealer or similar auto-parts store and get a 40 amp circuit breaker....mine cost me $7.95 here....then connect it directly to the POSITIVE side of the battery and then the positive lead of the trolling motor to the other side of the circuit breaker...then of course the neg side lead to the neg side of the battery...your done.

 

You know I had 2 trolling motors before this one and neither had a circuit breaker hooked up to them....but this one came with instructions to add one so I did...the other two were trouble free for over 25 years...go figure...but with the price of these T motors it's a good and reasonable investment.

 

Edited to add this:

 

Here is the circuit breaker I am using for the last 3 years.

 

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?client=gmail&rls=gm&q=12+volt+40+amp+Circuit+breaker&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=18023907927774833824&ei=tIJJTdXQA8T6lwfsw8n8Dw&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=image&resnum=3&ved=0CD0Q8gIwAg#

 

Bob

Edited February 2, 2011 by Billy Bob

[John Bacon]

Is 40 amps enough? My understanding for 12 volt motors is 1 amp per pound of thrust. I know my old 42 lb Minn Kota was rated at 42 amps.

[mercman]

Paul, yours does NOT have a built in circuit breaker. And, in my opinion, alligator clips are useless. You'll need a 40 amp breaker on yours wired as close to the battery as possible.

 

 

Well, thats good to know !! For what it cost, ya think they would have added one in the line somewhere And why the aligator clips if you need a fuse