Circuit Breakers and Fuses
Golden Channels offers everything you need for your trolling motor wiring project. This includes a wide selection of circuit breakers and fuses.
Circuit breakers and fuses are normally installed within a very short distance of the batteries in a boat. Trolling motors draw relatively high current from boat batteries, and you do need fuse or circuit breaker protection. Therefore, if the circuit breaker or fuse is low quality, sometimes it will open just due to normal current drawn by the trolling motor, even if there is no short circuit present.
These types of false over current indications create major headaches for boaters. Obviously, you don’t want to run your gear if you think there is something wrong with your electrical, so it means a lot of stress re-connecting things and hoping there is no issue, or bringing in a marine electrician, or at the very least, a quick refresher on how your voltmeter works.
Here are the basic specifications for circuit breakers. Firstly, there is the maximum voltage the circuit breaker is designed to be used with. The breakers or fuses sold by Golden Channels sell are all rated for 48V or higher. Secondly, every breaker has a “trip current”. This is the rating (in amps) that each breaker has. A typical rating for trip current is 60A for medium to large sized trolling motors. Thirdly, there is a minimum “hold current” which will NOT trip the breaker.
Inexpensive circuit breakers typically have much wider tolerances on the trip current or the hold current. If your trolling motor is close to fully discharging the battery, it will draw more current to draw similar power when the voltage drops. This increase in current may be what is tripping your circuit breaker, even though there is no problem.
Remember, we’re always happy to help if you have any questions about your boat, or installation. You can drop us a line at: