New Boat Trolling Motor Question

[Bdt 1967]

Hello,

I currently have a 16 foot Sugar Sand Tango 4+2. This year I installed a Minn Kota Powerdrive V2 with the iPilot on the boat, love the motor and iPilot features it pulls my little 16 foot Tango around with ease. I recently found a great deal on a VIP 1886 Combo (Fish Ski) and am considering buying the boat. I don't want to have to sell my Powerdrive with my current boat, I would like to install the motor on the VIP but the motor is only a 12v 50lb motor. Will this motor pull that 18 foot boat around in an acceptable fashion? Minn Kota's website recommends a 55lb motor, seems stupid to sell a 1 month old $1100 motor only to buy the same thing with an extra 5-10 lbs of thrust. Thoughts or suggestions?

 

[glenn property of pam]

2lbs per foot is the min rule of thumb. if the boat in a lake with no real current then 50lb will be ok. If you boat in a river then even 55lb is small for the size of boat.

 

[Pony]

Might depend on what you are doing with it. Trolling around slowly casting under docks and such would probably be fine. I see some guys using a bow mount to pull boards....sometimes cranks....so you are doing 1.6 to 2.0 mph. If the lake is rough that would be tough to do. I have an 80lb MinnKota Maxxum on my 17.5" Lowe.

If it were me, and I got the bigger boat, I would put your new TM on it and try it. If it works great, if not then sell it and buy a bigger one. It might be silly to sell a nice new TM, but would be just as silly to pass on a nice upgrade just because the TM was too small. There is no harm in mounting it and giving it a go.

 

[kjsAZ]

I have a 55# on a 17.5ft, transom mounted, and it works fine if there isn't to much wind or current. Usually only run it at half power or less. As was said above I would give it a try and sell it if you don't like it. You will get close to nothing if you sell it with the boat and a lot more if you sell it stand alone. Just remove (or hide) all wiring from the boat you sell or the buyer may want to have it thrown in for free........

 

[Bdt 1967]

I bought the boat, hope to get the motor mounted this weekend, I will let y'all know how it does.

 

[Bdt 1967]

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Got the motor mounted, it worked very well, pulled the boat around at 1.8 mph on speed 8.5 into a 14 mph wind. I lake fish so I don't have to deal with currents as much, my biggest obstacle is the wind. Glad I bought the long shaft MinnKota when I bought the motor, worked great.

 

[Bdt 1967]

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