Trolling motor plug to end all plugs

[mwardncsu]

Thought I'd pass this along.... Yellowdog and a few others shared this on the old forum in the past, and I should have heeded their wisdom earlier - so I wanted to share this here for others....


My boat came with a trolling motor plug close to this one...


They guy that did my original electronics install said that plug would eventually fail within a couple of years and we were going to go ahead and put a Marinco plug in but the hole that the original plug was in was too big so he just left it......

Well about 3 years in the plug finally gave me enough grief that I decided it was time to swap it out.... you could tell where the plug was arcing some inside from a loose connection. I went back with the Marinco plug (and the 6 ga wire adapter) and rigged it into the existing hole by making a large washer to hold it from the back-side - sloppy but worked until I could eventually do some fiberglass work to reglass the hole and redrill.



I did that late summer or so.... but by October I was having issues - Seems I was not getting the screws tight enough on the wires and they loosened up over time and running the 80 lb thrust motor pulling my 24' bay boat was creating enough resistance & heat that it melted a bit of the support housing. I was actually surprised with the issues as I know several using this plug successfully for a long time - it may habe in part had to do with the lack of a fully secure mount of the base and thus the TM-side plug not getting getting locked in and creating arcing/resistance or something else.

I decided I was putting in the plug that I should have from Day 1 - the Battery Tender plug. This this is a beast - the wires attach via ring terminals, so no worry about torquing down screws on bare wires. Used my hydraulic crimper to crimp 6 and 8 ga ring terminals on the wires and then covered with heat-shrink and then secured them to the male and female side of the plug on the post with the lock-washer and nut. Cut a new hole in the boat for the female side of the plug and hooked everything up.

This plug uses a large thumbscrew to pull the male and female halves together and lock them together securely. It is not the cheapest plug by any means, but I would have saved $30-$40 if I had just used it the 1st time around......


batterytender.com/battery-connector-black.html




If this one fails on me then I'm direct wiring the trolling motor and installing a switchable breaker.....

[Brian]

That is the plug I like too.... But, why are you unplugging it all the time? I don't see any reason to and always leave mine plugged in. When my Riptide ST is in it's in the cradle, it's off and doesn't draw down the batteries.

[mwardncsu]

I've read stories of TM's catching on fire even when "off" and at the dock. Not sure if it was due to a surge of some sort through the charger or what. It is not totally off when docked but I agree it is mostly off and certainly not running heavy current, but figure it's insurance. I do occasionally forget to unplug it and nothing bad has happened yet.

Note the lower power TMs (power drive v2 as an example) are NOT off when docked.

[Brian]

I'm not scared of my TM My theory is that it's better to not wear out the connector, which would cause a voltage drop, which would cause high currents, which would cause lots of heat. That, and I'm too lazy to constantly plug and unplug it I'm thinking of putting the connector protected inside the anchor locker instead of exposed on deck. I would hard wire it, but occasionally (rarely), it's nice to remove the TM if I know I won't need it.

Speaking of hydraulic crimpers... Which one do you have? I'm thinking of buying one.

In the past I always just ordered big cables premade from genuinedealz, but I have a lot of them to do and don't feel energetic enough to pre-plan exactly what lengths I need.

[mwardncsu]

I think the crimper I bought came from Harbor Freight.... there is also one that shows up on eBay a lot which seems to come recommended.

The die-set on the HF seems to be marked wrong - you you actually have to use a larger gauge die than then wire / terminal you are crimping. That said I did my larger battery cables with it when I rewired the other year.....

I'm with you exactly on not pre-ordering - it's hard to plan it out just right - easier to run the cable, cut to length and crimp. If you have a bunch to do its worth the purchase - harder to justify with just one or two cables though

[striperjohn]

MWard you might consider a switch on the battery hot lead to the trolling motor. I have and old Scout Flats boat I bought new, made for saltwater and saltwater folks rigged the TM up for me. They placed one of those big Perko switches on the hot lead side so when the boat is trailered or docked for any long period I just turn it off. (Yes you do forget to turn it on at times--but heck sometimes I forget why I walked from one room to the next-LOL) Their deal was the less you pull and replace the plug the longer it will last and not get bad stuff in it to corrode it. I've had the same one since the boat was new in 99. Just my 2 cents. Now it'll break this year---duh.
Cheers,
John

[mwardncsu]

Striperjohn - that is not a bad idea - should have done that when I was rewiring everything - and/or gone ahead and replaced the exiting breaker with a switchable breaker. Still useful to have a plug to make it easy to pull the TM off if needed for service, but with a switch somewhere in-line you can just turn it off and leave the plug in to prevent the wear on the plug itself....

[Brian]

I used a 25% Super Coupon and got the Harbor Fright crimpers... They work very good I think... I have no idea what the crimp is supposed to look like, but I couldn't yank the wire out of the ring terminal.

Even though I still don't think there is any need to disconnect a Riptide ST, I am going to use a Blue Seas breaker with a switch on it... It was about the same price as the Minn Kota non-switchable breaker that I had planned to use, so why not..

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[mwardncsu]

Brian - definitely go with the switchable breaker if you're installing new..... I use those for my house circuits - not sure what the cycle rating on the switch-portion is but its should be fine for a long time.

In theory the crimper is not supposed to make those "wings" - a perfect crimp will be a uniform hex shape - the die set in the H.F. setup are marked several sizes too small (large?) - in that you need to step up a couple of sizes for the wire you are actually crimping. I still end up with a little bit of a "wing" even then.





I'm sure you have a solid crimp - I guess the risk is that there is a stress point in the connector where the metal has been severely deformed. Perhaps an issue on a large ocean-sailing vessle or something that will be under daily, constant vibration - but I think you'll be fine.....

[yellowdog]

I use the one Mike show pics off and it has worked well for me. I had an older Riptide that if I left it plugged in while charging the batteries, it would burn up the mother board. The guy that works on mine asked me that first when I brought it in for repair. I always unplug mine when charging.