trolling motor stops working

[Bronze Backs]

Minnkota Maxxum 74 lb off the bow. Last weekend the motor worked fine for the first few hours, then worked intermittenly the rest of the day. It would turn on briefly after sitting, then shut off again. Running a 01 Ranger with 3 circuit breakers in rear hatch w-On/Off switches, one breaker going to the TM ...bad breaker? Suggestions to try?

[Surface Tension]

Manual breaker or automatic? Are you using the 3 prong plug, if its sloppy I'd replace it.

[Sandmannd]

I have this problem. Snipped the plugs off and hard wired it and it lasted all day. I'm bought new plugs I'm going to install and solder them on.

[Bronze Backs]

I suppose it's considered manual with the on/off switch. But there are no plugs on the breaker -- it's hard wired. I have 4 wires coming into the rear hatch -- red, orange, white and black. The red and orange are hardwired to their own breakers.

[Surface Tension]

I'm speaking of the plug up by the motor.

[marine_man]

It sounds like something is going on with your breaker - run it in your garage and see if it has the same behavior. If it does use a multimeter and see if you have voltage on the other side of the breaker.

What size breaker are you using?

marine_man

[bonefish]

I had the same thing happen to me this weekend. Turns out that it was the battery nearing the end of it's life. I charged it before I left, ran it two hours, then I got that intermittent problem.

I notice the charge was lower than it should be for just a few hours of use so I brought it in for testing - where I learned something new. I brought it to a local retailer that tested it with a handheld unit - and it checked out. I wanted to see if I could load test it so I brought it to a auto store where they do that. They said they wouldn't load test a deep cycle because they can do more damage than good (made sense when you think about how it's designed for slow release, vs the rapid of a test). So I decided to drive accross town where I prepared to beg for mercy from the retailer. As they pulled out their tester he asked "which posts do you use? It's not uncommon to get different readings from different posts!"

Turns out that the other places tested on the large posts, and when he connected to the small posts I use - it failed!