trolling motor installation question

[brian howard]

I bought the new trolling motor I had been wanting to buy for my PT185 last night. After talking to the guy at Bass Pro store I decided that installing the motor myself may be easier than I thought. I started today and got part of it done before I ran into a little snag. I bought a 12/24V MinnKota Maxxum 70 and my problem is with the wiring for the plug and receptacle. The guy at the store warned me how that Tracker has a plug/receptacle system that is compatible with the way this new MinnKota would hook up. So he showed me an after market universal plug/adapter that I bought. Him and I looked at one of the boats on the show room floor which had the same system that my boat currently has and it looked as if he was correct because the plug on my current motor is a molded plug that I could not transfer onto the new wires of my new Minnkota.



From past posts that I have read it sound like many people have done this and I was wondering if someone could give me an idea on how to finish the installation. I'll explain my scenerio and hopefully it makes sense. The current receptacle mounted in the decking has 4 wires running into the back of it, 1 red, 1 orange and 2 black. The diagram and instructions for the universal plug I bought shows that there should only be 3 wires. What do I do with the 4th black wire when hooking up the new receptacle. Do I wire it up with the other black? I'm assuming that I can run both blacks to the same screw post on the back of the receptacle?



Thanks

Brian

 

[Mini]

Sounds like you are set up for a 12/24v system.



If you have a 24v only motor you only "need" two of the wires. What gauge are they? You may want to upgrade your wiring to 6ga or better now while you have it all apart.



There are numerous diagrams on the net that show the wiring for a 24v system at the battery.

 

[brian howard]

Yes, it sounds like my boat is setup for a 12/24 system from what I'm reading at other sites and that is what the TM that I'm replacing is. I was wrong though about my new TM that I'm installing. It is a straight 24V. I think I'm going to give up and take it to someone to do the wiring part. I'm not to great with electrical and tend to get confused. I understand from the diagrams that I've seen, but I'm not sure about how that it is set up right now when it comes to making sure there is a breaker in the line and all. I've been reading on other sites that I could make it work with the 4 wire system that is already there, but I've also read that it should be upgraded to 6 gauge wire from the current 8 gauge with the bigger motor I bought. I was really trying to avoid having to run new wire and tear the boat apart to do that. Because of this I think I'll have to break down and spend some more money to have someone do it for me. I keep looking back at it and thinking I can make it work the way it's configured currently, but I want it to be right and I don't have alot of confidence in some of the stories I have read on other sites. Being that my boat is a PT185, I was hoping that some other guys here would have had the same experience with their Trackers when trying to switch the factory installed TM to a newly bought model.

 

[Eddie Payne]

Check out Jones Trolling Motor, John Jones is one fine fella, he helped me out when I went to a straight 24v system on my Nitro. Mine had red, orange and black on the female side. I wired up the batteries for 24, then used a test to check voltage at the front. Diagrams are on his site.