Trolling motor

[Doback]

I'm thinking about buying a Lowe FM 165 with a 60 hp merc. It's 16.5 ft and I believe it weighs about 1,200 lbs. I'm going to put a trolling motor on it, but I don't want to put an electric one on there because I have no way to charge the batteries on extended camping trips. I'm wondering if a new 6 hp outboard would be an ok motor for trolling in lakes and the Columbia river. I'd appreciate your guys opinions.

 

[MTboatguy]

6 hp should be fine for a trolling motor, that is about what we used to run when I fished the Columbia many moons ago, might want to check your Mercury to see if it has the charger option on it, many of them do have the ability to keep batteries up these days. What year is the Mercury and Model?

 

[Doback]

Thanks for the info. I'm not 100% sure. I'll try to find out in the next day or two.

 

[Silvertip]

Of course the Merc has a charging system. It is needed to keep the starting battery charged. But the charging system is not intended to keep a trolling motor battery topped off as well. You would need to run wide open for hours to have that happen.

 

[MTboatguy]

I have a small solar maintainer that I mounted to the top of my trolling battery box, it won't charge it, but it does help out, when I am running my electric start set up, I have a separate starting and trolling motor battery in my boat. My trolling motor battery is a Group 27 HD battery, so I can go for quite a while without draining it.

 

[gm280]

There is always the option to buy a little portable gas generator and when not using the trolling motor and camping on land for the evening or whenever, you could crank it up (they are pretty quiet) and let it charge the batteries. And you could even power some small lights as well. Just an idea and not a big generator as well...

 

[ondarvr]

You don't want a new 6hp anything for trolling, they are all single cylinder motors that tend to be loud and vibrate to the point of being very annoying. Go with two cylinder motor.