Reply With QuoteYes, and if they're too short then solder & heatshrink. (No "Solder Vs Crimp" discussions please guys)Do you mean you have just single unbroken lengths of cable from inside the motor housing through to the circuit breaker..?
Scott I just pop the pins out and check them, easy to do, poke them in some dielectric grease so there's a covering and pop them back in. All fittings get the treatment once a year. Salt water air has a very detrimental effect on everything. I have to wash my security screens every 3 months with a wash n wax treatment otherwise the 309 SS will corrode.Originally Posted by disorderly
Yes, and if they're too short then solder & heatshrink. (No "Solder Vs Crimp" discussions please guys)Do you mean you have just single unbroken lengths of cable from inside the motor housing through to the circuit breaker..?
Those 3 pin MK plugs do fail -
Hey .... question can you buy 50-100 amp tinned wire ? (sorry I don't know the gauge)
When I look at my issues over the past 15 years of leccy ownership & even battery wire failures most of the time it is associated with the copper wire as much as the plug (MK or Andersson plug)
Chris
Give a man a fish & he will eat for a day !
Teach him how to fish
& he will sit in a boat - & drink beer all day!
TEAM MOJIKO
Below is the plug kit contents. Various adaptors to suit whatever AWG you are running. Sleeve adaptors go onto wire ends and then placed in sleeve with allen key grub screw securing wires. All connections wrapped in water proof tape and filled with electrical contact grease then sealed with high quality heat shrink. The female end is quite long so you need to make sure where you drill the hole has space to house the plug length and wires. Really clean installation so time will tell. I replaced the original Marinco Plug that was severely corroded at the connection.
https://minnkotamotors.johnsonoutdoo...eptacle-mkr-26
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I'll start using the grease on my connections, mate ..should have been doing it already..
As it seems the plugs are a major source of concern a single run of cable would certainly minimize those issues...
Easier for some then others depending on how the setup is wired and how often the motor needs to be removed...
With the wire have all your problems been at the ends or just due to being too small a gauge to carry the load..?
You didnt bother tinning the ends of the wire then..?
Yes, sorry I did tin the wires on both ends (trolling motor and battery cables) after shortening them up a fair bit to get fresh connections. Pretty confident with al the treatment and sealing that corrosion wont be an issue with this plug. When the motor is off the female plug had a great seal which I believe was probably the problem with the Marinco plug as well. There is another plug out of the US I think called the "Battery Tender plug" that seems to get a good wrap but was difficult to order here and wasnt much cheaper than the Minn Kota plug which seems to be better quality anyway.
No worries ..I will tin them as well...
I just had a bit of a closer look at the burnt out plug and where the unsoldered wires went into one end of plug I can see that there is quite a lot of that greeny blue stuff on the wires and lugs..
So it doesnt seem to be the actual plugs fault but just because its not actually waterproof and salt water and air can get in there...
Hopefully on the new one the grease may slow this process down..
I might have to think about rerouting the cable and repositioning the plug so its not quite as exposed in the anchor well ..
Re the tinning / no tinning? My trade background is electrician, primarily in mining in recent decades. We had to deal with a vast array of different types of conductors, sizes, and applications. Everything from heavy power cables down to control circuitry in large marshalling panels. I also have a formal qualification in HV cable termination up to 33kV. So, we got to see it all. Including underwater joints for large dewatering bores, I was doing that for a while, 110/150/185kw/415v pump motors down wells up to 240 metre deep . And a lot of my learning comes from seeing what causes different kinds of terminations to fail..I've seen a lot more of this than the average house basher or auto sparky, no disrespect intended. Ever opened up a switchboard and found 25mm of diesel sitting in the bottom? HTF did that get in thereNow you are making me question the advice i have been given... I have some good stories.
Around salt water, you really are better off getting any unsealed termination right away from direct contact. This is stating the bleedin' obvious, but can be very difficult to manage. If you can find something with tails connected and sealed in, it's a good start. As for any kind of plug in, it difficult to find something which is 1) compact, 2) has a high current carrying capacity and 3) is saltwater proof. ... as the old joke goes, pick any two. If you want your MK removable for security or travel reasons, you'll obviously need a connection which is pluggable , for convenience, which is why we are having this conversation. The Minnn Kota wiring plugs mentioned a couple of times above looks to be the goods, as they have tails attached so you can terminate in a dry place , with soldered joints, and glued heatshrink, fill with silicon grease. And maybe have to plan on replacing them overy few years? You ahve the two choices. The type that you have to terminate yourself at about $120 https://chsmith.com.au/Products/Minn...SABEgISGvD_BwE
or the type already referenced, with sealed tails for about $270 https://www.theboatwarehouse.com.au/...yABEgJAofD_BwE Nice looking piece of kit, but you can buy an awful lot of andersen plugs for that, if you can manage them in the space available on your boat, and seal them up, using advice previously given.
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