Fireworks

Mad Dog · 09-06-2004, 12:48 PM

Check your fire extinguisher. Saturday I had a fire on board after the trolling motor cable shorted out and caught fire (24 volt). To say the least we (my son and I) had an interesting few minutes until we got the fire out. Because it was an electrical fire the wires were shorted (welded) togeather and kept re-igniting. Not too much damage to the boat. Cable is shot. It is a Great White 24 volt, 82 lb thrust. Does anyone know where can I find another cable and is this something I could repair myself. The motor is only one year old and the reason for the short is because the previous owner wired an on/off foot switch into the cable and did a poor job of splicing. Since the cable was spliced I doubt it will be covered under warrantly. Anyway I was so thankful I had the fire extinguisher on the boat.

Kamper · 09-07-2004, 08:29 AM

Almost all marine supply catalogs will have wire and cable. You can also get it from your local*boat dealer.

FYI - When dealing with an electrical fire, the electricity needs to be shut off at the main switch. If the circuit is left live you could damage the battery in addition to having a harder time extinguishing the fire. Additional hot spots can form along the wire igniting more fires, possibly in unreachable places.*

Shut down*the motor to avoid damging it since there will be nowhere for the alternator to dump excess*juice. Shutting down the motor is a normal thing to do in a fire situation anyway.

Glad you came out*of it ok. Good luck with your repairs.*

paxfish · 09-07-2004, 10:03 AM

Be sure to put a 40 amp fuse or circuit breaker in that line when you replace....

warthog5 · 09-07-2004, 10:45 AM

This is the one I installed on my neighbors boat.

http://bestboatwire.com/catalo...d=536

I also installed a power shut off/on switch.

http://bestboatwire.com/catalo...d=531

Mad Dog · 09-07-2004, 03:28 PM

Thanks for the advise. The line does have a circuit breaker at the batterys. I can't understand why it did not kick off. I will install the shut.

theoldwizard · 09-07-2004, 06:08 PM

Mad Dog,

If you have a circuit breaker installed and you had a short that caused a fire then REPLACE THAT DEFECTIVE CIRCUIT BREAKER !

There are such things as self-reseting cicuit breakers. YOU DO NOT WANT A SELF RESETING CICUIT BREAKER THEY WILL JUST RE-START THE FIRE !!

P.S. The breaker should be as close as possible to the battery in order to provide the maximum amount of protection. Personally, I like fuses. They are cheap, work well and small enough to carry a couple of spares.

How long was the original wire run ? What guage are you planning on using for replacement ? If the wire size was too small you may never have pulled enough current to trip the breaker