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I have a 13 foot sport and have ran a trolling motor on the bow but when at top speed my breaker will kill the power after about 15-30 seconds (which it should) as the wiring gets very hot.
I think I'm running 8 ga wire (roughly 10ft) and am thinking of going with a 4ga wire (I found laying on my shelf). Does the ground need to be of the same size or can I go smaller and if so what ga would be recommended.
1963 13' Sport 50hp Evinrude
Maintaining a level of sanity that is socially acceptable
Turpin wrote:
Does the ground need to be of the same size or can I go smaller...
Both the hot and the ground need to be sized for the amp draw of the motor. If you over size the hot I guess you could have a ground that is sized correctly and be smaller than the hot, but I'm not an electrical engineer.
Might want to check for bad connections, or that something might be binding the trolling motor propeller. Just a couple things that can cause an over current situation making wiring heat up and trip circuit breakers.
