# Kill switch or not to kill switch



## rcgreat (Apr 3, 2009)

How many of you run a kill switch with a lanyard on you jon? My outboard does not currently have one but I am thinking of adding one for safety. Is it necessary?


----------



## Specknreds (Apr 3, 2009)

Do you have a tiller or remote steering? It's the law in Louisiana. In LA you also have to wear a life jacket while underway on a tiller driven boat. I had a accident with a rouge wave and every since then I have used it.


----------



## rcgreat (Apr 3, 2009)

Specknreds said:


> Do you have a tiller or remote steering? It's the law in Louisiana. In LA you also have to wear a life jacket while underway on a tiller driven boat. I had a accident with a rouge wave and every since then I have used it.



Its a tiller steer motor. I dont think its a law in FL. (I will check and make sure) and I know its not law to wear life while in motion unless you are under 12.


----------



## redbug (Apr 3, 2009)

I have my kill switch hooked around my wrist every time i fire up the big motor and have the live vest on also..
Wayne


----------



## Specknreds (Apr 3, 2009)

rcgreat said:


> Specknreds said:
> 
> 
> > Do you have a tiller or remote steering? It's the law in Louisiana. In LA you also have to wear a life jacket while underway on a tiller driven boat. I had a accident with a rouge wave and every since then I have used it.
> ...



Please check into the FL law. I will check later. I will be in FL at the end of Sept. fishing for a week out of Homosassa River. I'm bringing my boat and it is tiller. 

The life jacket law in LA is when your outboard is running no matter your age.


----------



## CarlF (Apr 3, 2009)

I use my lanyard everytime I run the engine. Its cheap life insurance. Watching you boat go out of sight as you bob in the water would suck. Worse would be it circling back & running you over.
Here in AL, I believe that all boats under 26' have to have one, I know all remote steer boats under 26' do.
Kids under 12 have to have on life jackets. Adults only have to when within 1000' of a dam.


----------



## Quackrstackr (Apr 3, 2009)

My Triton has one but honestly... the only thing ever hooked to the lanyard is my clippers for cutting line.  

I pulled it once to check function and like to have never gotten the thing back the way it was supposed to be.


----------



## rcgreat (Apr 3, 2009)

Specknreds said:


> rcgreat said:
> 
> 
> > Specknreds said:
> ...



Specknreds, I just went thru my book and it does not say anything about kill switches and lanyards. I was wrong about life jackets it says anyone under 6 years must wear a life jacket while underway on any vessel under 26 ft. I tried going to Florida wildlife commission website but apparently it is down. https://www.myfwc.com/


----------



## fowlmood77 (Apr 3, 2009)

CarlF said:


> Its cheap life insurance. Watching you boat go out of sight as you bob in the water would suck. Worse would be it circling back & running you over.



I was going to say the same thing. WHY TAKE THE CHANCE? A guy got bounced out of his boat last year around here. He didn't have the lanyard on, but was luck enough that there was someone close by that somehow got in between him and the boat that was circling him. If those guys had not been around, he might not have been so lucky.


----------



## ben2go (Apr 3, 2009)

My engine has no provisions for a dead man switch.I do wear my pfd.If it had one I would use it every time.


----------



## jims72 (Apr 4, 2009)

If you got it use it.If not well the you are s.o.l thats my story and im stickin too it!


----------



## rcgreat (Apr 4, 2009)

I am thinking I am going to go ahead and add one to the outboard. They are not that expensive and not that hard to wire up. It sounds like some of you have heard of somone getting bounced out and I really dont want to be one of those.


----------



## Waterwings (Apr 4, 2009)

When I had my Tracker and was in calm water just motoring to another location I wouldn't use it. However, when we would head out into the big water of Ky Lake or Barkley Lake and it was choppy I would always don the pfd and clip the kill switch lanyard to the d-ring on the pfd. I would also have my passengers put their pfd's on also.


----------



## bassboy1 (Apr 4, 2009)

ben2go said:


> My engine has no provisions for a dead man switch.I do wear my pfd.If it had one I would use it every time.



They are only 9 or 10 bucks, and about one of the simplest things to wire in. 

I always wear my lifejacket when the motor is running. Usually, however, the kill switch isn't worn. I do wear it in rough water, or in tourneys, as most of them require one. 

I did hear a story years back where a guy fell out of a 14 footer with a 6 horse Johnson, and the boat circled back, and cut his arm off. We are talking just a 6 horse motor here. No motor is too small for one.


----------



## ben2go (Apr 4, 2009)

I know but my engine doesn't have a wire to use to connect to.It has a plate under the fly wheel, that grounds out the ignition, when the throttle is back down to stop.I don't have a button or anything.Only wire I have is the plug wire.The points and condenser wire is solder and under a water tight cover.


----------



## bassboy1 (Apr 4, 2009)

ben2go said:


> I know but my engine doesn't have a wire to use to connect to.It has a plate under the fly wheel, that grounds out the ignition, when the throttle is back down to stop.I don't have a button or anything.Only wire I have is the plug wire.The points and condenser wire is solder and under a water tight cover.


Is that plate the only thing that can ground out the ignition....?

See where I am getting at here. Most kill switches have 2 sets of terminals. One opens the circuit when the switch is pulled, and one closes it when the switch is pulled. So, if you can, attach a wire to that plate, and through the switch, in the latter position mentioned to a ground. If the switch is pulled, it grounds it, just as the plate you mentioned does.


----------



## ben2go (Apr 4, 2009)

I could try it.The plate is tiny.Maybe 1/16 inch square.


----------



## GrumMan (Apr 4, 2009)

I know most would disagree with me, and probably correctly so from a safety standpoint, but I guess I'm old school. The motor I have now is the first I've ever owned with a kill switch. I can't stand the dang thing! Not sure if something is wrong, but the only way to shut the motor off is to pull the kill switch, must be installed to start the motor. Real pain the @$$! I'd like to bypass it. In 35 year's of JB's, I've never fallen out on purpose, never knew anyone who did in a town where there is practicaly 1 or 2 JB's in every yard. Just use common sense! Don't jump barge roller's, (don't ask how I know this LOL) don't go where the waves are so high you'd get bucked outa the boat, and don't do "Bat turns."


----------



## bassboy1 (Apr 4, 2009)

GrumMan said:


> =Not sure if something is wrong, but the only way to shut the motor off is to pull the kill switch, must be installed to start the motor. Real pain the @$$! I'd like to bypass it.


Have you tried pushing the red button on the kill switch in to stop it? When I first got a motor with a kill switch, I thought the only way to stop it was to yank it, and used it like that for a friggen year and a half. Then, one day I was tooling down the lake (with a 4 horse, it is fairly slow), and musta been messing with the front of the tiller, and the motor just quit. I then realized that if you push the button in, it stops it. #-o #-o


----------



## Zum (Apr 4, 2009)

I have an old 9.9 that the throttle sticks on...hit a rock or stump,knocked me to the floor and I started doing tight circles...I tried hitting the motor straight a few times before it finally went straight again.Wished for a kill switch that day.
Was in alittle tournament and the boat ahead of me was an older boat with cable steering,one side of his cable broke sending buddy flying out the boat and his boat didn't stop till it crashed ashore,he wished for a kil switch that day.
I still don't have one but wouldn't mind one.


----------



## redbug (Apr 4, 2009)

A kill switch isn't for the days you can use common sense it is for the things you can know about the better safe than sorry stuff.
its like a seat belt or car insurance you hope you never need it but if you do your glad you had it..


----------



## Quackrstackr (Apr 4, 2009)

There must be some sort of switch on mine that can sense extreme attitude change. Stops the motor dead when near vertical.

Don't ask me how I know that.... :shock:


----------



## rcgreat (Apr 9, 2009)

Alright I bought a kill switch, but when I got it home it is not what I thought. It has four connectors two are normally open and two are normally closed. I know the normally closed will not do anything for me. Right now I am grounding out the coils to shut the motor down. I cannot do that with only two connections. Do I just short the two coils together without grounding it. The outboard I have is a '76 Johnson 25. I want to make sure I will not fry anything before I do this.


----------



## rcgreat (Apr 10, 2009)

someone? anyone?


----------



## sccamper (Apr 11, 2009)

What is tthe mechanism you us to ground the coils? Is the kill switch a push button or lynard type? If push button type, us the normally closed connectors, when you push it opens circut. Put the switch in between the coils and what ever you are using to groundd them now.


----------



## sccamper (Apr 11, 2009)

My tiller came with a push button kill switch. I have thought about changing it to a lanyard type, but never got around to it. Guess Ive never put myself into a place where I was scared enough to really think I needed it. I know it only takes one time to be the last time. I do wear a pfd while under way, I make my daughter wear one all the time we are moving. I take mine off while fishing, she can take hers off if we are floating or anchored in swimming conditions.


----------



## rcgreat (Apr 11, 2009)

sccamper said:


> What is tthe mechanism you us to ground the coils? Is the kill switch a push button or lynard type? If push button type, us the normally closed connectors, when you push it opens circut. Put the switch in between the coils and what ever you are using to groundd them now.



My motor did not have any type of kill switch. I want to add a lanyard type, but it only has two connections no and nc. I heed to shut down two coils. I read somewhere that you can short the coils together and that will kill the motor. I also think the push button kill switch that comes on the older johnsons is just a normally open switch that when pressed shorts the coils together but I want to make sure before I set this lanyard switch up.


----------



## fowlmood77 (Apr 11, 2009)

Maybe this will help you

https://www.duckworksmagazine.com/05/columns/max/3/free.cfm


----------



## rome8899 (Apr 11, 2009)

Fowlmood, you a Duck hunter? If so, I've got 40 acres, just across the Saluda River, @ HWY.183, in Pickens Co. There's a couple of Beaver ponds, and swamp, that are a haven for Wood Ducks, in the fall, and occasionally a Mallard or two. Also trophy Deer, Turkey, sometimes, a Black Bear. Let me know if you might be interested, and don't wait 'till the night before opening day, like all the rest , that I turn away. Scott


----------



## fowlmood77 (Apr 11, 2009)

rome8899 said:


> Fowlmood, you a Duck hunter? If so, I've got 40 acres, just across the Saluda River, @ HWY.183, in Pickens Co. There's a couple of Beaver ponds, and swamp, that are a haven for Wood Ducks, in the fall, and occasionally a Mallard or two. Also trophy Deer, Turkey, sometimes, a Black Bear. Let me know if you might be interested, and don't wait 'till the night before opening day, like all the rest , that I turn away. Scott



PM Sent


----------



## rome8899 (Apr 11, 2009)

PM sent back, but I'd rather correspond here, (on tinboats) if it's OK with you.


----------



## rcgreat (Apr 12, 2009)

fowlmood77 said:


> Maybe this will help you
> 
> https://www.duckworksmagazine.com/05/columns/max/3/free.cfm



Thank you fowlmood, thats exactly what I was looking for.

Gary


----------



## Henry Hefner (Apr 12, 2009)

I do not have a lanyard kill switch, just a push button. I have told myself several times to convert the push button to lanyard, but I often ignore myself. Maybe this thread will push me to finally listen to me. There are several on eBay: https://tinyurl.com/c72neb


----------

