Trolling motor kill switch, Anyone do this?

I have a 14' Sportspal canoe (flat stern; not the wide version) onto which I have put a 50lb thrust trolling motor with a 12v 100A LiFePo4 battery (wow, they are light and so is the Sportspal). I wanted something inexpensive, light and really simple to use without all the maintenance stuff (not much time for fishing and want to make sure I am not killing whatever time I have with more complexities). First test went well but there was some mods to be made as the stern seat is too close to the motor's tiller, which was also strangely high and awkward to reach. Moved the stern seat up and set up the battery in the location where the stern seat use to be (this forward movement of the seat and battery should improve the trim as well I think - haven't been able to try it without an adult passenger in the front so don't know how it will be if I am solo in it). Still not the most comfortable reaching back to the tiller but I don't think it will get any better unless I convert the motor to a control box rather than the tiller handle (maybe a future project for the future but then I will need to figure out the steering too). Anyway, to the topic of this message. For folks going out solo in a trolling motor-powered vessel, have you guys put in a kill switch? I have ordered a battery isolator kill switch that I plan to install onto my Minnkota battery box on the negative terminal and with a coiled lanyard tied to it so that it will act more or less like the kill switch for an outboard engine. I was wondering if I was being overly cautious or if this is something that everyone does. New to using an electric motor for the primary power of a craft.

Raytek marine used to make all sorts of kill switches, some are wearable like a keychain or a bracelet. but not cheap

I think the kill switch is a great idea in a canoe or kaya. I use mine in my boat when I am by myself and at speed, not while fishing. I been looking at the same type and size of battery. what your opinion of them?

I've seen this before, very basic set up. Velcro bracelet with line to positive terminal. The
guys connection was alligator clips. The positive one pulled off easy as he set it up that way.. not hard to do something yourself.. cheers..

I have a couple of rigs a pontoon for rivers and a small punt I use for back lakes. This spring found my lead acid batteries kaput again. So i tried a cheaper lithium battery and have been trying it this summer and I am more than pleased and will be switching out the other trolling motor batteries. I'm going to stick with the lead acid for the honda outboard as per manu. rec. The battery has worked so well that I don't even bother with my small gas yamaha motor on the punt. The electric easily lasts all day fly fishing on back lakes with the 55 lb thrust power drive c/w remote fob. One of the differences that I appreciate is the ease of charging the lithium, it fast and easy, similar to charging a cordless drill battery. I did buy a matching charger with the battery. I'll post a pic of the river pontoon, you might be able to see where I removed the head shortened the shaft and offset the direction of the head to ease reaching around behind. My opinion your over thinking the kill switch.

This post has been edited by swampsinger on Sep 25, 2024 - 06:15 pm

Kill switch is a great idea, I’m yet to do a switch so I disconnect it from the battery all the time. If it was accidentally bumped on those props are deadly I’m sure. Problem is I use it once or twice a year and keep forgetting to install one, I thought of it packing up for this weekend then saw your post.

Battery. So far, I am impressed. Just so light weight compared to the lead-acid batteries. Charging is easy with less of an issue now of leaving in the boat to charge because of the weight of taking it out all the time. Have used the motor at full speed for 2 hours now and still fully charged. Thinking about it now, I may have been able to get away with one that was 50-60% of the 100A battery (for my purposes since I don't get long days to fish). Such a small battery would have been even lighter. I will be getting a 10A one for my ice fishing sonar unit to cut down weight (as my lead acid one is close to end of life). 100A Dakota was $1000 on sale at Cabela's. I got my no name brand on Amazon for under $300 (good reviews and so far, I agree with those reviews) and free delivery to my home. It's always a risk of course getting a battery online but the thinking was given that the price was about 30% the brand name, the battery had to only last about 30% as long and it will be the same price per use and then I can decide if I needed another 100A battery (trial and error tells me not likely so I can save even more money and weight if I had to replace it with a smaller battery).

I just got the kill switch today...this one is not going to work so easily; it's a twisting lock in place for the contact/no contact with a spring keeping it tightly in place so tying a cord to the red lever won't allow it to be pulled out too easily (if the cord is strong enough, I will likely become trolling bait). But since it was really cheap, I will play with it to see how I can MacGyver it to make it easier to pull out if I fall overboard - I think it's a matter of removing the spring inside. Looking at the battery box and how I connect the wires from the trolling motor, I think you are right that it's not difficult to have a simple rig to just pull off one of the wires - they are not ring terminals but the "Y" shaped ones so should be easy to get them to slide out (the trick is to figure out the tension needed to pull out in an emergency but also not too easily as that would be a P-I-T-A. One terminal had slide out once already (I didn't turn the wing nut tightly enough). Some trial and error coming up.

Agreed. These batteries are impressive. I got a no name for less than 30% the cost of the brand name batteries at Cabela's (on sale that is). Hope mine will last at least 50% of the brand name ones (I will be very happy with that). I was thinking about reducing the shaft length of the trolling motor as well....not so comfortable with doing that just yet....maybe after a few years when it's old and I feel I have less to lose. Right now, I will live with the slight awkwardness.

I just saw this thread, or else I would have mentioned this earlier. That switch you posted a picture of won't work for your intended purposes. It takes quite a deliberate motion to turn that switch from off to on. I have the same style on a dump trailer.

Personally, I like the idea someone posted up thread about using alligator clips on one of the battery leads and tether. You don't even have to do it right at the battery. You could rig up something closer to your seat inline so that your tether lead could be shorter.

Instead of using clips, you could put a forked terminal on the end of one of the wires and use a wingnut on a stud to tighten it. You would tighten the wing nut tight enough to make a firm connection, but loose enough that if you were to pull on the wire, the forked terminal could be pulled out.

You could also try and use a Anderson connector for both wires if you can get one small enough, but they are pretty tightly fitting and may not quite pull apart as you intend. Maybe you could fix a cable leader through one side of the connector and attach the tether to that. This way you would be pulling directly on the connector, not the wires and maybe it would pop free more easily?

Best of luck

Thanks. Yep, I didn't know how this kill switch worked (assumed it was like one of the other ones that just pulled out which doesn't seem to be in the market anymore). All good suggestions. The trolling motor already has the forked ("Y") connectors (if was a ring connector, I could have cut open the ring connector to make it into a fork style) and my battery box as wing nuts on the outside to make the connections very easy and quick so it should be easy enough to attach a cord to the forked connector to pull out with a lanyard on the wrist or my pfd. I also like the suggestion of using alligator clips but since I have the forked connectors, it will likely be easier just to attach something to the forked connector to pull it out from the wing nut instead of adding an alligator clip. If I don't like it still, I may try the alligator clip on one of the wires.

You should use a switched breaker.