I have a plastic 2 man boat (Pond Prowler) that I got from Basspro shops. It came prewired for a trolling motor. I am using a Minn Kota Endura 50 trolling motor. The wiring gets hot at the fuse and at the plug in connection. I have replace the fuse connection twice and the plug in connection once. The fuse does not pop, just the connection melts. What's up with this?

Are you running it on high for extended periods? If so, you're drawing a ton of amps continously. That'll make wires hot pretty fast.

WHAT SIZE WIRE DOES THE BOAT HAVE? YOU SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST 6 GA. WIRE. BUT LIKE JIGNPIG SAID IF YOU ARE RUNNING IT CONSTANTLY ON HIGH THIS WILL HAPPEN. I WOULD GO WITH A SMALLER FUSE AND KEEP BLOWING THOSE UNTIL YOU GET A PERMENANT FIX. MELTING CONNECTIONS MIGHT GET EXPENSIVE. FUSES ARE CHEAPER. THAT TM SHOULD BE PLENTY OF POWER FOR THAT RIG. GOOD LUCK.

The longer the run, the bigger the wire. It's not like you are running wires 20-24'. I doubt 6 guage is needed for a pond prowler but I do think the wire that came on it is probably undersized. BPS cuts cost any way they can. Heck, they own procraft and I bought 1 of those new, 20', and they had 10 guage from the batteries to the front but had them pigtailed with 14 guage 30 amp FUSE holders! Geeze! The same parent company owns motor guide too and MG recommends 50 amp Circuit Breakers, NOT FUSES on their 12/24 756. One hand don't know what the other is doing.

IN ORDER TO PERMANENTLY FIX YOUR PROBLEM YOUR PROBALLY GOING TO HAVE TO UPSIZE YOUR WIRING FROM #10 TO #8 OR #8 TO #6 BUT VERIFY THAT THE FUSE SIZE IS CORRECT AS FOR FINDING OUT WHAT SIZE WIRE YOU ARE REQUIRING AN ELECTRICAL TESTER WITH AN AMPROBE WILL GIVE YOU THE ANSWER #10 IS GOOD FOR 30 AMPS #8 FOR 40AMPS &#6 FOR 40 AMPS TEST YOUR TROLLING MOTOR WITH IT ON HIGH AND IN THE WATER SO THAT IT HAS A STRAIN ON IT OR CALL THE MANUFACTURER FOR RECOMENDATIONS

I appreciate the info. The wiring that came with the boat does seem small compared to the trolling motor harness wire. This is what I did. I got some marine alligator clips and connected them to the trolling motor harness wire ( soldered the connection). I will connect the clips directly to the battery, bypassing the boat wiring. Next week I will test this out at Boerne City Lake. Wish me luck and thanks again.....

Even doing that, get you a 30-40 amp circuit breaker (or whatever the manual for the troller calls for) that mounts on your + battery post and then hook your red trolling wire to it. You can get the auto reset type at just about any auto parts store pretty cheap.