Forum | My Trolling Motor Issues...

Well, once it stops raining, we'll have to take a look at what we can figure out with the livewells….

I just want the installation to be good looking.  "Homey don't do ugly…" 

Nope, the lights staying on issue goes back a ways, at least to last fall before the trolling motor puked.  I don't know what the problem is with that, but I do know that it will suck the battery down pretty quick (i.e. a couple of days.).  It's amazing how a dozen or so lights will drain a battery.

As for the timer for the livewells, I'd really like to have it work as originally designed.  There's only two switches that make it work.  One that turns it on and off, the other from manual to auto!  I'm thinking that I might have bought a bad timer pod as there's no way to install it wrong.  It plugs into the wiring harness, so there's only one way for it to plug in!  I might go to Odom's tomorrow and talk to them to see where the problem is. 

Hey, if you can get the lights to work with the switch and figure out my livewell issues, I'll buy you TWO cases of Stewarts Root Beer!

One case for each issue….

Well, when they told me $284, that was just for the kit.  They neglected to tell me about the 1.5 hours of installation at $60 per hour!  And then add sales tax on top of that and it doesn't take long to bump up the numbers pretty quick.

I really can't complain because the boat hasn't really cost me much of anything since I got it.  I have to only repair my recirculating pump system and figure out what's going on with the wiring that I now have all my instrument lights on unless I disconnect the battery! 

I was talking with the guy from Dover Marine today and he told me that I should bring the boat in and he'd get it figured out.  I figured "Yeah, you sure will, in probably three or four hours. (at $60/hr.)

I'll see if I can either figure it out on my own, find someone that can figure out the issue for a case of beer or two or just live with it until I sell the boat…

Well, the TM issues are now over!  Yesterday morning I received a call from Dover Marine and they told me that my motor was all fixed and ready to be picked up!  So $404 later, I had a rebuilt motor…

The nice thing is that sometime over winter, my starting battery decided to finally die.  So with three Optima batteries in the boat, plus the trolling motor batteries, and with the 36 volt motor being converted to a 24 volt, I had an extra battery in the boat.

Lil Mule came over and helped me re-wire the battery compartment from 36 to 24 volts, so all I had to do was move one of the Optimas over to the starting battery position and I'm good to go. 

Now, when I plug in the onboard charger, it charges ALL the batteries and I don't have to use a separate charger to restore the starting battery's charge.

Life is good…. 

Just might be over!  Way last November, LilMule and I were out on Kentucky Lake when my trolling motor became "stuck on high."  With a 36 volt motor, it was not a safe situation because if the motor wasn't perfectly straight ahead, the surge would just about throw me out of the boat!

Getting online, I found a MotorGuide authorized service center in nearby Dover and took the motor to them for repair.  I found out that the circuit board that controlled the speed was fried and needed to be rebuilt as MotorGuide no longer services the older analog motors like mine. 

At that time, they outlined the options for me.

1. They had a company in Nashville that repaired circuit boards, so they could take the board out, and send it to Nashville for repair.  Cost of repair, roughly $250

2. They could convert the motor to digital with a conversion kit.  Cost of repair, approximately $350

3. They could sell me a different motor.  Cost anywhere between $550 – $1,200!!!

So like a dummy, I said, repair the board.  A month or two later, the board was returned with the note that the components were too fried to be repaired.  So they said they'd find me a different board. 

Evidently that's harder than it appears because I called them today and they haven't been able to find me another circuit board.  I was fully intending on asking them if they'd take my motor in on trade for parts on a different motor when I remembered about the digital kit.  So I asked them about that.

"Well yeah!  We can do that for you!"  So now I'm waiting for them to call me back with a total price of the coversion kit so I can give them the authorization to complete the repair…

I really wanted to just get another motor, but this way I won't have to drill new holes for a different mount, I won't have to rewire my boat from 36 to 24 volts, and it'll be cheaper than buying a whole nother motor.  That's important because I spent a little over a grand yesterday on tires and a front end alignment for my truck!