# Please tell me if I'm overlooking anything with this plan...



## paulrad (May 10, 2016)

I recently purchased my first skiff. A shadowcast 16 tiller steer with grab bar. It has a small cranking battery front with wires in conduit under the gunnel leading back to the motor. The conduit appears to be pretty well packed as is.

I would like to mount my trolling motor and a GPS unit. I'm pretty sure I can network the two devices together. (Lowrance elite ti 9 and motorguide xi5. I haven't purchased the lowrance yet).

So here's what I'm thinking...
1. Move the small cranking motor to the back. This should make room in the conduit. And I doubt it would affect the balance of the boat all that much since the battery is pretty small anyway. I would let the small cranking battery power the GPS unit since the GPS won't draw too much power anyway. I'd mount the GPS unit on the grab bar. I'd have to figure out some slick way of running a cable across the floor for the little ways from the rear deck to the grab bar.
2. For those occasions when I want to use a trolling motor, I would have a larger deep cycle battery also in the rear. I would only have this battery and trolling motor in the boat for those times when I'm not planning on fishing real skinny water. I figure this might put a lot of weight in the back, but my thinking is that If I'm running a trolling motor then I'm probably not in real skinny water anyway, so what's the problem?? From the configuration of the compartments I don't think it looks feasible to have a battery in the front be removable like that. Plus, I think that the trolling motor in front would balance out the weight of the big battery in the rear. I think I could run a network cable and power cables though the conduit to the trolling motor.

For those with more experience than me, does this plan sound decent? Have I overlooked anything drastic? I'd sure appreciate any words of wisdom you might be willing to share. Thanks.


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## THX1138 (Dec 20, 2016)

I know it’s not much help... but I say roll with it and see how it shakes out. I fish solo a lot on my cayenne and you can get skinnier than you think. If you can find a way to run the TM batt up front I think you’ll be better off. It’s easy to forget about the weight of your engine out back...

Lou


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## paulrad (May 10, 2016)

I thought of an issue I'll have. Not sure yet if there's a solution. If the trolling motor will only be on half the time and I want it networked to my gps, then I'm going to have to have the network cable go through the front deck of the boat. Obviously that's a nogo. So I'll need some sort of nema2000 plug on the deck for it...in a similar way that there is currently a power outlet on the deck.

This gets me to thinking that a much better way to do this networking would be via wifi or bluetooth. I'm sure that motorguide, lowrance, etc will come out with a better networking system as soon as I drill this extra hole in my boat!


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## paulrad (May 10, 2016)

Ok. I found this maretron gizmo that looks like it might solve my problems. It's a Micro Bulkhead Feed-Thru. Anyone familiar with them?

https://www.maretron.com/products/pdf/Micro Term Feed thru Multi Datasheet.pdf


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## THX1138 (Dec 20, 2016)

Never seen them but it looks cool.

Lou


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## Salt of the Water (Feb 26, 2018)

How big is the cable conduit that comes from the bow? Have you checked the required cable size for running your TM over the full length of the boat? 

I'm guessing 12v 55 lb motor. That has a 52 amp draw. If you're running all the way from the stern to the bow on a 16 ft boat, that's 32ft of wire (pos + neg). That means you need 1 awg cable, maybe you can get away with 2 awg depending on acceptable voltage drop for the motor.

If the motor cables alone were maxing out the conduit, it's possible that the TM cables will not fit.

Also, once you price out 32' of 1 or 2 awg wire, 5' of 6 awg might become pretty darn appealing.


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## Vertigo (Jun 3, 2012)

Salt of the Water said:


> I'm guessing 12v 55 lb motor. That has a 52 amp draw. If you're running all the way from the stern to the bow on a 16 ft boat, that's 32ft of wire (pos + neg). That means you need 1 awg cable, maybe you can get away with 2 awg depending on acceptable voltage drop for the motor.


Wrong. Please check here for info on wire gauges:
https://www.minnkotamotors.com/support/compatibility/battery-selection-and-rigging

The OP could probably squeak by with 6 ga, although 4 ga would be safer. Just because the boat is 16 feet long doesn't mean the distance to the TM plug from the battery is 16 feet.


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## topnative2 (Feb 22, 2009)

google cable clam.......might help


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## Salt of the Water (Feb 26, 2018)

Vertigo said:


> Wrong. Please check here for info on wire gauges:
> https://www.minnkotamotors.com/support/compatibility/battery-selection-and-rigging
> 
> The OP could probably squeak by with 6 ga, although 4 ga would be safer. Just because the boat is 16 feet long doesn't mean the distance to the TM plug from the battery is 16 feet.


ABYC E-11 calls for round trip distance (from battery to device and back to battery). It may not be the full length of the boat times 2, but I assumed that any vertical deviations would get you up to 16 ft one way. It's at least 25 ft round trip which calls for 2 awg on the minn kota chart.


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## Vertigo (Jun 3, 2012)

From the Minn Kota chart: *Wire Extension Length refers to the distance from the batteries to the trolling motor leads."


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## paulrad (May 10, 2016)

Vertigo said:


> From the Minn Kota chart: *Wire Extension Length refers to the distance from the batteries to the trolling motor leads."


Ya, that's how I read it too. But that is the exact type of thing that I was hoping to get from this post. Hadn't even considered it prior to his post. I'm grateful for all these replies.


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