Wireing Big Jon's

[Vitalidle]

I was going through the booklet that comes with the riggers. I bought 2 brutes or speedriggers and it says to use 4 awg wire. Looking at the wire to the motors its 12/2 wire. Battery cables are 4 awg aren't they? I bought 2 plugs for trolling motors that has 10 awg wire. So what is everyone using? It says to run the 4 awg to the bus from the bats. Electrical is not my strong suit. Can I use the plugs with the 10 awg from the bus to the 12/2 wires to the motors?

[Priority1]

First you need to know what their amp draw is. It should say in their specs. You would not need #4 wire even for 4 downriggers.

Here is a link for a boat wiring ampacity chart.

http://www.boatus.com/boattech/CircuitProtect.htm

[Mike]

Without getting into the particulars of electricity. If it is recommended to run 4awg wire, then that is what you need to run. Running a thinner wire will cause the motors lifespan to be shortened as well there are other shortcomings as well.

[Paulywood]

I used 10 ga for my Pro Tournament riggers but the Brute's draw a lot more amps with the big, high speed motors. I would go with the 4 ga. Did the riggers come with any wire or plugs? If they did I would use that. Or you might be able to get plugs that can be used with any gauge wire.

[1mainiac]

I used Minn Kota trolling moter plugs for mine and since I have a short run from the plgs to the batery I used 10ga wire well also because I had some in the garage. The motors are rated for 50 amps so 10ga is kinda skimping 6 0r 8ga would be better. The reason they suggest 4ga is because a lot of guys will run wire to one outlet and plug both riggers into the same outlet if I had to buy the wire I would have ran 4ga over to one side and hooked up 2 riggers on it and did the same thing on the other side. The reason for bigger wire is longer runs. Kinda like hooking up a 4 ft garden hose to fill a bucket then filling the same bucket with a 100ft hose the shorter hose has less resistance so the bucket fills faster. Another thing to remember is you will gain resistance and reduce power output at every connection so using larger primary wire provides you with enough power to overcome the line and connection losses.

[Mike]

If you require quick disconnects look for a winch quick disconnect or the type that most tow trucks use to connect the battery booster cables

Edited March 22, 2009 by Mike
Image added

[Vitalidle]

The reason they suggest 4ga is because a lot of guys will run wire to one outlet and plug both riggers into the same outlet if I had to buy the wire I would have ran 4ga over to one side and hooked up 2 riggers on it and did the same thing on the other side.

Okay that makes the most sense to me. So my guess is they want you to run the 4 awg to the bus bar and then run mutiple riggers off the same bus bar? Seems that would be the only reason to run a buss bar anyway. The wire is 12 awg from the motors, so if I tie in the 10 awg plugs and run 8 awg to the bus I would think I should be fine? The run shouldn't be more then 4 ft.