no more electric lake for me for a wile

[crazyhunter]

me and a couple of buddies were fishing in an electric only lake (lake dow). we had my bass boat set up with a 50lb trolling motor on the back and a 50lb foot controled on the front. we had a good morning and had just got back to the boat ramp. i pulled the boat up to the shore to get the truck and as soon as we stoped the back trolling motor started smokeing. i turned it off the i noticed the wires from the motor to the battery were melting. i started to panic then because the battery was about 1ft away from my blackmax 150. then the wires caught on fire. i grabed the fire extingusher and put it out. next i look and see the post on the battery start melting. then it catches on fire. i put it out and the post are red by this time and melting the top of the battery so i toss the fire extingusher and grab the battery and was about to throw it in the water and it blew up. luckly i didnt get acid on my face some how and it only got on my clothes lol there shot now. so now im down a battery and a trolling motor. i will try and get some pics up of them when i get home.

 

[JB]

Re: no more electric lake for me for a wile

Wow, crazy! A close call. Glad you got out with what little loss you had.

 

[hungupthespikes]

Re: no more electric lake for me for a wile

Very scary. You got to have a in-line fuse/breaker. Would have saved the battery and the acid bath.

 

[Monsterbishi]

Re: no more electric lake for me for a wile

Very scary. You got to have a in-line fuse/breaker. Would have saved the battery and the acid bath.

^^^ This - there are some neat terminal mounted automotive ones out there if your marine shop doesn't have anything suitable.

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: no more electric lake for me for a wile

Take a look at ATU fusing , its simple and readily available. If I remember right those go up to 70 amps

 

[crazyhunter]

Re: no more electric lake for me for a wile

well for some reason my computer will not let me upload photos

 

[saumon]

Re: no more electric lake for me for a wile

...maybe your 'puter wiring is about to melt! :laugh:

 

[crazyhunter]

Re: no more electric lake for me for a wile

maybe your 'puter wiring is about to melt!

hahaha well seeing my luck lately it wouldnt suprise me lol

 

[gm280]

Re: no more electric lake for me for a wile

Glad you're okay. I don't think the trolling motor was the cause of the battery meltdown. I had a NiCad battery pack meltdown on me one day while at work in a software office. This was a huge NiCad battery pack built out of nine “F” cell NiCads...a large and pretty heavy battery pack. It got so hot that the batteries were literally red hot and glowing with smoke and fire as well. It was an internal short and I had to get it out of the building and quickly too. Luckily I had a metal trash can under my desk and was able to throw it in there and run with it out the building. I too worried about it exploding but was lucky it didn't. But it was extremely scary all the same. I think your 12 volt trolling motor battery developed an internal short as well and there was no fuse or circuit breaker going to stop that internal short... Just glad you didn’t get seriously injured... Battery packs can be finicky at the least opportune times. Just look at the new 787 aircraft with their cockpit battery issues...

 

[greenbush future]

Re: no more electric lake for me for a wile

Very scary. You got to have a in-line fuse/breaker. Would have saved the battery and the acid bath.

I just installed my 12/24 volt trolling motor with 30 amp inline fuses. They work just fine, and are part of any trolling motor installation. Glad you are uninjured, and just thank your lucky stars you didn't cause injury to anyone. I found very reasonable in-line fuses at the auto store that installs stereos in cars. If you go to Bass Pro they will ding you for like $60.00 for one. The ones I have were about $10.00 each. Good luck.

PS buy extra fuses too!!

 

[jerryjerry05]

Re: no more electric lake for me for a wile

No amount of fuses is gonna help if the battery shorts internally.
A friend came over with bandages on his face, said the battery in the truck he drove BLEW- THE F%^& UP.
Going on about how he could have lost an eye.ETC.
Turns out he was checking the water level in the battery in the dark with a lighter!!! NO SYMPATHY!!!

 

[brnschoneck]

Re: no more electric lake for me for a wile

wowa scary glad ur ok !!!

 

[joed]

Re: no more electric lake for me for a wile

Wires from the motor to the battery melting indicate to me a problem with the motor not the battery. The battery could have faulted later in the sequence after overheating from the motor short. Fuses most definitely would have help in this case.