Electric Trolling Motors and Battery.

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Re: Electric Trolling Motors and Battery.

Postby Patriciasailing » Thu Jul 20, 2017 1:45 pm

Well, I have not yet wired the battery and motor, but just secured the battery on the mast inside the cuddy, attached the Minn Kota 55# trust electric motor on the transom and went sailing on a very very windy day (15-20 mph winds with stronger gusts) during the very busy 4th of July weekend. I wanted to reef before leaving the boat ramp, but hubby said no, and foolish of me, I complied. The used motor I purchased on eBay (before I had mistakenly said from Craigslist) arrived with no screws for the motor cover. After a couple of emails and phone calls I contacted the very helpful Minn Kota local service guy who gave me the replacement screws without charge. I must have not screwed them on correctly because after a few minutes of trolling out of the marina they starting falling out. Also, I placed the motor too close to the rudder and they kept obstructing each other. As you can all guess, it was a very stressful sail with several problems, but the biggest one was the placement of the motor on the transom.

Where should I place the motor so it does not bump into the rudder and viceversa? I guess I need to install a motor bracket? does anyone have the dimensions of the motor or bracket placement? I did see a picture in this forum which I will look for, but any additional advice is very helpful. Thanks!
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Re: Electric Trolling Motors and Battery.

Postby GreenLake » Fri Jul 21, 2017 3:37 am

The older DS1s have a well in the transom that may have been intended as storage (or a cooler, it does have a drain to the outside). However, it makes for a nice motor well and placing a trolling motor bracket there (as far outboard as it will go) gives sufficient clearance between propeller and rudder.

For a DS2 - how far outboard (to the side) can you mount your motor if you clamp it over the transom? It is OK to be quite a bit off the boat's centerline.

I think a motor mount for a trolling motor may be overkill. Clamping them over the transom should be fine. I took the step of "padding" the inside of the clamp with heavy duty felt (the stuff used for putting under furniture is sold some places as 3x5" sheet and I used several of those.

The clamp has one flat side, check. The other side is two circular supports for the screws. I took a piece of wood, about 1/4", and glued it as a plate connecting the two circles. Now I could add a bit of felt on that side in a single piece, and the area over which the clamp is active is a bit larger.

Downside is, I can no longer screw in one of the screws all the way first, then the other. However, I can advance them a few turns at a time in alternation and that works well enough.

Motor mounts move the motor further back. In m experience that's not needed with a trolling motor. They also sometimes have methods to raise/lower the motor. Again this is not needed for a trolling motor, because you can usually adjust the vertical position of the propeller directly on the motor.
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
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