Trolling Motor Rope/Cable Replacement - Easy to Do
I know this has been talked about before, but thought I’d contribute the info on my project in case it helps anyone.
I noticed my trolling motor cord was frayed badly in two places – imagine that?
And I had seen guys using steel cable as an upgrade. I decided to do that, too.
I was thinking about what size/length of cable I needed to buy, and how to attach the ends.
Later, I was fooling around in the basement, looking through junk for something unrelated to boats, when a “Red Green” inspirational moment struck. Lying there on top of an old table was a long, blue, plastic-covered, bike-lock cable! (Notice cloud over my head with picture of me pulling up the trolling motor with a pretty,blue, steel cable) BTW: the cable diameter, on the outside of plastic coating,is ¼ inch.
Next: how to attach both ends? One end had a crimped-on eye that a small padlock would attach to; the other end was just a crimped-on loop. I cut the loop-end off with bolt-cutters.
I cut the old rope off that was attached to the motor. On my motor, a Motor-Guide 46-pound, there is a heavy plastic frame with a hole on it the rope went through. I pulled out all the old rope and ran the cable end I cut off through the hole in motor frame (perfect size, nearly the same diameter as the old cord) and out to the handle end. I bought a small bolt, washers and nut and attached the end of the cord with the eyelet to the hole in the trolling motor frame. (The cable end and the motor hole was a perfect match!)
I cut the cable off again to the desired length, ran it through the plastic handle (I had to drill it out a tad for the cable to fit through the handle) and then crimped a ferrule on the end of cable to serve as a stop.
Works great!
It would be a small fish in Red Green’s ingenious, invention repertoire, but a highly functional and ultra-cheap solution to an age-old, problem area. (And the old, forgotten bike-lock cable gets a new life and now rides happily on the Crappie Boat.)
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