Anyone have experience or know what the deal is with power degradation in regards to how long your power cables are for your trolling motor? I figure mine are run about 18 feet, and it seems like the t-motor just isn't as strong as it should be. I had the battery checked and it's fine. The motor also doesn't seem to have any kind of problem, it just seems like the power is kind of weak even with the battery freshly charged. The wire I'm using is sort of medium gague. The really heavy stuff was so expensive that I didn't get it, but it's not just some thin junk either. Any ideas on this?

Well with cars if you put the battery in the back then you need to up the wire gauge to handle the current. I'm sure it's the same with the trolling motor. The bigger the wire then the easier it is for current to travel through it. Think of electricity as water, when you crimp off a hose it barely flows then when you let the crimp off it comes flying out becuase it has no resistence. Same thing...

Are you talking about 18' between the battery and the motor? If so, that's a HUGE 36' run, and you'd better be using at least 2 AWG wire unless you want a BIG voltage drop.

I recommend you find a way to put your battery closer to your motor.

This is just for an example if your motor pulled a 10 AMP load and you used 4 gauge wire the drop in voltage for the 18’ run would be about 1.3 volts. Which means if you started with 12 volts at the battery by the time it reached the motor you would have 10.7 volts. Now if you were running 2 gauge wire then drop in voltage would be just about ½ of that about .6 volts, so your motor would be getting about 11.4 volts. So what I guess I am saying is some larger gauge wire would help you out. If you would like check the gauge wire you have now and I will check the voltage drop you are getting now so you can compare. Hope this helps.

FIT

I can't remember what gauge I have... But I'm going to hook it back up at the splice by the motor direct to the battery and see how much better the performance of the motor is. If it's better, I'll just have to figure a place to put the battery closer to the motor. I have very little know how on electric but I need to learn for the boat stuff. Thanks for the info you guys gave.

-Rob