Electric Trolling Motors - Questions & Suggestions From Experienced Members Please,

[jewgaffer]

Hi Raiders

I've been doing a bit of research lately on the advantages of fishing with an electric motor and found the two leading brands to each have something desirable going for them in one way or another as far as the popular and widely used older corded foot control bow mount models are concerned....

From what is being said independently where the concept of using an electric trolling motor originated from, and the many other countries where lures are commonly used instead of having to spend time to collect bait or having to pay for fish to have bait to fish with, it's not hard to be motivated by the fact that lure technology, electric motors, quality sounders, and stealth go hand in hand to maintain having easier sessions and a better catch rate and perhaps rightly so..... Today's technolgy -some of which might come to the point of actually indentifying the precise location and the numbers and size of a particular species- is in itself steadily improving all the time....

In not having an electic motor this day and age, it seems fishermen are at a disadvantage over the fishermen who do have one...This is obviously due to electric motor fishermen being able to move round and cover more ground silently and quickly move off to a more productive spot if necessary... particularly those secluded spots that are hard to get to and then be able to hold there and fish forward silently..... There are some good boating spots which include fishing unfished or lightly fished vegetated areas and rocky areas with high cliff overhangs, and in particular, places that are unusually deep for the area and generally inaccessible from the shore.......

Anyway, before I go into details of my questions on what I've picked up so far in regard to the ins and outs of electric motors, I managed to pick up a 2004 Saltwater Series 82lb thrust Motorguide from a farmer in the far west of NSW, that has had limited use in the local river and a large restocked dam out that way.. The Motorguide was delivered to my door yesterday by the farmer on his way to Sydney....On presentation, the Motorguide was in excellent, rarely used condition and was only subject to red dust from the last month's dust storm.....

What got me interested was we communicated for quite some time and the old boat he sold to replace with a specialised bass boat which already has a 54lb minn kota terrova on it, had the big Motorguide in a slightly raised position in between the same high close together bow rails as my boat has... We discussed the fittings he made at lenghth to install the Motorguide just above the narrow gap below the outward taper of his own bow rails, which he did rather than having to cut off part of his port side bow rail....He said if I was interested in the Motorguide, that he would be able to deliver it down to my home complete with the three particular bow fittings he made and check that the shaft was long enough to raise his undermounts by a few inches if necessary, so as to be abled to be retrieved in between the wider part of my own bow rails and at the same time be able to get a good maximum propeller height for the 50 inch shaft's propeller which we found could be adjusted easily on my boat to the desirable 12 inches below the water line with more head room if required to allow for swells....

Here are some questions and some points I came across, such as the must do's and must not do's and also the necessaries that I've picked up so far... Many of the points listed below and the answers I'm seeking would also apply to Minn Kotas......

For those who may not be aware, it is worth noting that should you happen to hear of or see an electric motor that you might be inclined to buy, just remember that electric motors that are painted black are for freshwater use, and primarily designed for the large number of inland waterways in the States and the electric motors that are painted white are specially prepared and designed for better longevity when regularly used in saltwater .....

The Motorguide I bought from the farmer yesterday is a SW 82 FBD 50 series 24volt bow mount motor manufactured in 2004.....It has cable foot controll model and has had approx 3 metres of cable added to it so that it can be controlled from the stern area when required...It is the vari speed model I believe..

* The leads coming out for 2x12 volt batteries are two yellow leads and two black leads ?... I thought there would be just 1x red positive lead and 1x black negative lead and, to supply 24 volts power to a 24 volt motor, would require connecting the negative lead to negative of the first battery, and then connect the postive lead to the positive of the second battery and use an appropriate separate cable to jump the positive of one battery directly to the negative of the other battery, any comments on this ?.....

* I've picked up some information that a 50 amp manual reset in line circuit breaker is required in line in the positive lead and must be placed within 1.8 mtrs of the battery terminal ? I might have to look along the Motorguides 's positive lead to battery to see if the required circuit breaker has been added...

* Does anyone know if the hinged section of the Motorguide bow mount itself is usually referred to as a break away section?

* The foot control has speed positions and a permantly on switch as well as an on/off switch, perhaps I may have to work out the reason for and the fuctions of that facility on the water...?

* I've heard about people having to adjust the sensitivity of their foot pedal as standard owner maintenance, does anyone know how is this done?

*Back to the electrics... Should I install an isolator swich on the 2x12 volt deep cycle batteries to be able to swich them off or would it be safer to manually unscrew the terminals to disconnect them, and keep them separate from everything else that runs off my dual starter batteries? as it seems disconnecting the batteries whilst connected to an electric motor is a must in cases where they are stored permanently on a boat according to information I picked up a while ago... There is a good quality marine grade battery connector available on the internet that does this particular job very solidly for tool free off and on connectiion for all boat batteries..

*Not disconnecting the battery/s may damage the motor as will having the battery/s connected to the electric motor when using a battery charger....

* From my understanding of the scanty information available on the web on 24 volt trolling motor set ups, I read using a common ground for ALL boat batteries is a Must ??.... It was said that not having a common ground on batteries throughout the boat can cause corrosion and electrolysis and can damage the electric motor and also the boat......does this mean that a separate negative cable has to be run from the dual cycle battery's negative post/s and be coupled up with the outboard motor's starter battery/s negative cable and then be also positioned on the same negative post of the starter battery/s in order to have a common ground??

* The advice directly above may particularly interest DIY members...From my understanding of what I read on a particular overseas site, an electric motor's batteries MUST share the same common negative battery earth on the boat that the outboard motor and any other electrical equipment SHOULD also share the same common ground with all other batteries..Does anyone have experience with or have an opinion on this?

* It was suggested that rubber isolator boots be used on the mounting base and a couple of occy straps be installed in holes provided in the mounting base when travelling on the water or whenever towing the boat etc with the electric motor mounted, any comments on this?

*Keep electric motor cables separarate from any other cables and paricularly the main loom and have them on the opposite side of the boat if possible

* If you have Motorguide cables and need to extend them, use 6 guage 13mm marine grade cables, it would be a good idea to check on this in the case of Minn Kota motors as well....

** You can run 2 or 3 x 12v batteries in parallel and you will still only have only 12 volts and that would give more amperage and last longer. But if you put 3 batteries in series you now have 36 volts and your motor requires 24 volts... there are trolling motors that run off 36 volts i.e 3x12volt batteries connected in series, but it's not good to run a 24volt motor off that. Over voltage is just as harmul for an electric motoras under voltage.

*** To obtain 24 volts using to 2x12 volt batteries to power a 24v electric motor - Connect the black (negative) terminal coming from the 24v electric motor to the negative post of the right hand side battery first - Then connect the red (positive) terminal coming from the 24v electric motor to the positive post of the left hand side battery .........Finally use a short separate cable and "jump" connect the remaining empty terminals i.e. the positive terminal (+) on the right hand side battery to the negative terminal (-) on the left hand side battery.....

Note: the "jumper" wire should be the same guage wire as the leads coming from the electric motor

**** When wiring batteries in parallel, ALWAYS use two batteries of the same size and condition. NEVER put in just one new one! The older battery will quickly draw down the new battery and shorten it's life. The effects are not as severe when dealing with batteries wired in series (24v).

***** Battery Chargers for 24volt systems...What type of battery charger/s would you use?.... Do you charge each battery separately with a 12v charger having disconnected and separated them? or do you use a special charger that will charge two 12v batteries connected in series and if so how do you configure the charger's leads to the two batteries?

Not sure about Minn Kota but Motorguide recommend that grease not be used on their motors at all as grease slows down moving parts, they say only use light machine oil, such as sewing machine oil, or reel oil. They also said that using the aerosal type sprays is a big no no as aerosal spray can actually damage the electrical system

I'm sure further questions will be asked and more information will be sort from time to time and as always I appreciate your valuable input into anything to do with your own DIY stuff, boating and particularly electrical equipment... I again look forward to your advice not only for the benefit of myself but also for the benefit of other members who intend adding an electric motor to their boat in the future to keep up with the times and to get the best they can out of their own fishing ....

Cheers and thanks

jewgaffer

Edited October 26, 2009 by jewgaffer