battery/trolling motor question

[Bubbadust]

I was using my trolling motor this past weekend and on the last day of the trip, encountered a potentially serious issue. When I turned my old trolling motor on, my battery (1.5 years old), started smoking and hissing from the positive terminal. The higher I turned the power on the motor, the worse the hissing and smoking got.

At first I thought it was the battery, but now I'm wondering if maybe a wire or connection shorted out inside the motor.

Any thoughts???

[BobT]

Loose terminal connection. Assuming you don't have a fuse or circuit breaker on the hot supplying the motor, if the connection was good, and there is a short in the motor, you wouldn't likely hear anything but would experience a wire burning somewhere between the battery and the motor. The hissing was probably the arc jumping the gap in the poor connection. This is a dangerous situation that could cause the battery to explode. I'd find the cause and repair it ASAP!

Bob

[Bubbadust]

Could it just be from a rusty clamp on the trolling motor wire?

[Whoaru99]

Yup. Take all the connections off the battery and clean up the batt terminals and the wire connections.

[Guest]

Go to autozone or napa and pick up a new pair of 50 amp clamps and install them and give it a try. Hopefully that is your problem. When trolling motors start going out they can have an excessively heavy current load which would definately contribute to sparks flying on a poor connection.

If the hissing happens with new clamps and clean battery terminals.. take the motor in for repair or replace it.

[Bubbadust]

Thanks for the help guys! Hopefully it's not time for a new motor yet...

[Bubbadust]

I replaced the clamps and that seems to have solved it. Thanks again for the advice.

Now if anybody wants to tell me why the heat in my Jeep didn't work today...

[Whoaru99]

Check the coolant level....

[upnorth]

Coolant??? You must mean the water level in the battery. Coolant is usually found in a radiator

[Whoaru99]

"Check the coolant..." was in response to his question about why the heat wasn't/isn't working in his Jeep.

But, I do agree, he should check the water level in the batteries too.

[upnorth]

Oops my bad

[Whoaru99]

No worries, Mate.

It's good to keep an eye on things so bad info is not disseminated.

[Fishin4Life]

Thermostat?

[Bubbadust]

I checked the antifreeze right away and that's full. The temperature is good, so I know it's not the thermostat. Must be something with the heater or some kind of a valve. I also had a problem one day this summer where the AC would blow VERY hot air.