Well, my ultrex is completely dead. All my electronics still work, but my ultrex randomly died and won’t turn on at all. Any ideas? I’m probably gonna have to take it in to Fun-n-sun and get charged a bit to fix it.

You're running your electronics off one of the TM batteries? If so, that's rather odd, and not recommended. Have you considered checking the 3 trolling motor batteries? Did you check the 36V breaker for the trolling motor? (There should be one.) That could still be tripped ever if you have working electronics getting power from one of the 12V batteries.

Sounds like a blown fuse or breaker.

Agree if it won't turn on at all it sounds like a fuse issue. I'd check the fuse back by your main trolling motor batteries.

I went fishing last week and my ultrex didn't come on the first time I deployed it. I tried flipping the power switch several times but still didn't get a power light at the switch. I returned to the boat dock and my truck which has my tool box and removed the bottom plate on the foot pedal and checked the two wires that go to the on/off switch. Both looked good but I still removed them and used a pair of pliers to tighten them up. I also checked the voltage at the pedal but only had 32 volts. I then went to the battery compartment and checked all the batteries. I still couldn't get any power to the switch on the trolling motor. I was about to give up but before I did I went back to the battery compartment and switched the trolling motor breaker on and off several times. When I checked the on/off switch the light was on and when I checked the voltage at the trolling motor I had 36 volts. I don't know what was wrong and it didn't make any sense to me but it was working and I got to go fishing. Now it worries me that it could happen again so I think I'll call Minn Kota today.

You may need to replace that breaker. And this points out a weakness in the every trolling motor setup. They are designed to use the breaker like an On/Off switch and breakers aren't meant to be used that way. They have a finite duty cycle of on's and off's and when you exceed that, they start to fail. I've seen several fail and frankly I'm surprised that more don't. Especially on heavily used boats like guides or tournament anglers. A better setup would be to have a switch in line with the breaker and use that to disconnect the trolling motor.

That's a really good point. I think the one on my boat is a switch and not a breaker, I have one switch for my TM, one switch for all my electronics and one switch for the rest of the boat.

Also, the power switches have been known to go bad. Cheap fix!

Texan, where did you get the smoke you're blowing? Legitimate-quality breakers (such as Blue Sea, Bussman, etc.) are often designed with a trip/switch life-cycle of 10,000 cycles. That's once a day for 27 years. Manufacturers are so confident in the ability to offer an integrated switch, they introduced full product lines with an integrated switch function so that the user can choose to turn it off manually vs. traditional product series that could only be reset if tripped (such as push-to-reset breakers). The quality marine products often specify IP67 as well - far more environmental protection than a common switch. The breakers also off ignition protection, which is one reason why they end up with that IP67 rating. Common toggle switches usually do NOT offer ignition protection. What's ignition protection, you say? That insures that the switch/breaker being actuated doesn't cause flammable gases (such as gasoline fumes) to ignite. I'd feel better knowing I have proper safety-rated switches/breakers in an enclosed compartment where gasoline fumes may be possible (due to a leak). The most common issue when someone's trolling motor doesn't work? Battery failure - in the form of service life end, failure to charge properly, failure to maintain electrolyte, etc.

Secondly, you're suggesting he put a switch in series with the breaker he already has. Exactly what readily available switch would you suggest (other than a special-purpose properly rated battery cut-off switch)? Many think "Oh, I'll just put a toggle switch in-line." Adding a switch adds two more interconnect points that are subject to issues (corrosion/high-resistance). It's rare to find what most people think of as a "switch" with a rating over 20A, and that's on the high/specialty end of the product spectrum. VERY few, if any, would meet a specification of even 50 Amps - so you'd be pushed to using a battery cut-off switch if you didn't want to exceed ratings on the component.

The best solution: Keep the number of failure points to a minimum by using a proper breaker/switch for safe operation in the environment. He has that. Want more? Do what I've done for 30 years - carry a spare breaker in the boat. It's an item I've never needed yet.....

If what you have in the back of the boat is what Skeeter installed at the factory, it's a combination breaker/switch intended for such use. Depending on what you have, the rating may be printed on the housing, or it may be on the end of the actuation lever itself. It's not necessary to get the exact Skeeter part to carry as a replacement. Just get a marine-rated switch/breaker combo of the same amp rating such as that sold by Bussmann/Blue Sea. (It even appears that the Minn Kota branded ones are actually a remarked Blue Sea breaker.) I've carried one for years, but never needed it. A standard properly rated switch/breaker for 50A circuits is Blue Sea 7183, which can be found priced under $50 online.

Well, that's news to me. I haven't looked at those ratings for a while and it sounds like they've made some big improvements in duty cycles. Good news, thanks for the update!

Cycle rating is usually in the specs, but it wasn't in Blue Sea's, so I called their tech support group 3 or 4 years ago when I saw that the 185 Series combo switch/breaker style products were becoming popular. I wasn't surprised with the answer because such a rating is typical of breakers in general (unless you're talking about the cheapie automotive consumer products that are typically a closed auto-reset component).

My experience as well - the power switch on the foot pedal seems to fail far more often than the breaker in the rear compartment. I'd venture to say the specs for the power switch aren't as robust as that for the breaker/switch in the rear. The breaker is a lot more expensive, and it's being counted on as a safety device that is ignition protected. The need for safe operation and reliability results in the typical IP67 rating, and therefore less chance of corrosion that causes failure. I seem to recall that Ultrex had an issue at one point with the power switch or possibly the connections to it getting loose, but I could be mistaken.

My marine grade breaker swith actually rusted on the inside or corroded to a point that one wire was lose and had no connection.
I replaced the breaker switch and it ifxed it.
Mine was Ranger factory, the same one used in my older rangers. It can happen.

Back to the original question....Fun n Sun doesn't work on trolling motors. They send them off to either Boris Marine (which you don't want to use) or to some place in Rockwall. I ended up taking mine to Texas Trolling Motors over at Lake Fork and they were fantastic. Fixed mine while I waited and they take care of the Minn Kota warranty stuff for you. Call Chuck at 903-850-4477 if you want to check with them.