used motors

running cougar

running cougar

Petty Officer 3rd Class
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77
Ok, i have a 12 foot flat bottom boat 32 inches wide. What would like to know is what size motor i should get for it. about how fast it will push my boat. It is very narrow btw. what brand should i look for also. any help woul dbe greatly appreciated. thx cougar.
 
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BigB9000

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Re: used motors

Personally I like johnson/evinrudes. But thats just my opinion.

I had this little thing:

DSC00192.JPG


And the 1993 20hp Johnson Pushed it along great! Actually it was way too fast...

Then the same engine found its way onto this boat:

l_7f377d193ac159a55a1cceb01a603cb8.jpg


Again, pushed it great.

then I rented a 14' alum with a 10hp johnson, and I felt it was way to damn slow:

l_68d91c5f27c14bea4779ecc1b55fad39.jpg
 
wildmaninal

wildmaninal

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Re: used motors

I wouldn't go with anything over a 10hp. The modern 12ft flat bottom boats and even some of the V bottom boats have a max hp rating of 10hp.
 
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BigB9000

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Re: used motors

Not to disagree with him, but for the record the 1970's alum max was 35hp. and the 67 fiberglass boat was 45hp
 
wildmaninal

wildmaninal

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Re: used motors

BigB....I'm not trying to argue, but comparing those boats that you have pictured below to the one he is talking about at 32 inches wide 12ft long is like compairing ships to yachts. The 14ft in your pic is of coarse 2 foot longer and looks to be much wider then the boat mentioned. The fiberglass boat is just a fiberglass boat which looks to be 14 to 16 foot long, I have one similar to it sitting in my yard and it had a 35hp motor on the back (doesn't have a horse power raiting), hard to compare that to any aluminum boat.

Assuming we are talking about a 12ft aluminum flat bottom boat, because there were some fiberglass ones out there. Actually I seen a narrow 12ft aluminum flatbottom that was only rated for 6hp, and only held up to 3 people. There is a certain calculation that can be done for the hull dimensions to give you an idea of what horse power to put on the back of that boat, I unfortunatly have no earthly idea how to calculate it up.

Go with an Evinrude or Johnson, easier to work on in my opinion, if your planning on doing your own mechanic work/normal upkeep. Do you have any horse power limits on any of the lakes near you?
 
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tmcalavy

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Re: used motors

Look for a transom plate/tag on your boat...it should tell you the weight, load capacity and perhaps the hp rating. DON'T go sticking much over 20 hp on there just for shiz and grins...start small, say 10 hp and work your way up, do this by trying friends and relatives motors until you are comfortable with the boat and how it handles. Be safe on the water. A narrow flat bottom 11-foot tinny will literally fly with a 15-18 hp on the transom.
 
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coolguy147

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Re: used motors

i have a 12 ft or 11ft not sure but it a v in the front i guess to plow through waves and 3 rivets on the bottom but mainly is a flat is rated to 15hp not sure about weight. another thing v hull tend to take more power to get on plane other then flat bottom but v hulls r more comfortable i think
 
JB

JB

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Re: used motors

As I visualize a 12'X32" flat bottom, "tinny" boat I think anything over about a JohnnyRude 6 is too much.

My choice for that boat (as I visualize it) would be a JohnnyRude Deluxe 4HP with gearshift.
 
mthieme

mthieme

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Re: used motors

32" wide sounds awful narrow.
Is this dimension correct?
When I was a kid, everyone had 12' jon boats and ran 10hp, but they were probably closer to 4' wide (can't remember).
 
running cougar

running cougar

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Re: used motors

Thx everyone, yes its aluminium and its very narrow. looks like a tracker 1232 it doesent have a hull identification plate or anything that could tell me about what hp i need for it. i was thing either a 4hp or 5 or mabye a 6 at the most. about how fast do you think it woul dbe pushing the boat?
 
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BigB9000

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Re: used motors

running cougar said:
Thx everyone, yes its aluminium and its very narrow. looks like a tracker 1232 it doesent have a hull identification plate or anything that could tell me about what hp i need for it. i was thing either a 4hp or 5 or mabye a 6 at the most. about how fast do you think it woul dbe pushing the boat?
Click to expand...

10-15?
 
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BigB9000

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Re: used motors

wildmaninal said:
BigB....I'm not trying to argue, but comparing those boats that you have pictured below to the one he is talking about at 32 inches wide 12ft long is like compairing ships to yachts.
Click to expand...

yeah yeah no I was just saying....
 
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freddyray21

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Re: used motors

I had a similar boat. I had a 6 hp on it once. With the 6hp and me and my wife in it we had about 2" of freeboard which ain't enough. Most of those are rated for 3hp max. Mine was and if it's like mine that's all you will want to put on it.
 
jay_merrill

jay_merrill

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Re: used motors

I just surfed the net a bit to see if I could come up with a couple of 1232 flat bottom jons in different brands. What I found is that most manufacturers make 1236 boats, rather than 1232.

I did find one being sold by an outfit called DirectBoats.com that is a 1232. It weighs 88 pounds, has a max capacity of 385 pounds, "person capacity" of two, and a max hp rating of 5 hp. My guess is that, if you were to find 1232 jon boats by other manufacturers, you would end up with the same limitations, merely because that's probably what the Coast Guard formula calls for.

So, Wildmanimal wasn't so nuts after all - take his advice and put a small motor on it.


PS: The width value given on a flat bottom jon boat is the floor width, not the width at the rails. That is why this boat seems so narrow to some. That said, its still a very narrow boat.
 
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tin knocker

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Mar 31, 2005
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Re: used motors

I have a 1232 jon boat which is probably the same as yours. It is quite old and well used but still has the rating plate. It is rated for 7.5 max. I regulary use it for duck hunting with a 5 hp Johnson and have used a 6 hp Evinrude. They both work very well, the 6 hp of coarse being a little faster. You must consider water conditions as they aren't great rough water rigs and travel best with some balast forward to get up on plane.
 
chiefalen

chiefalen

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Re: used motors

I have a narrow jon boat 12' flat bottom.

Fly's with a sears air cooled 3 hp motor. The motor is like a 65'.
 
running cougar

running cougar

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Re: used motors

Thx guys great info how fast do u think i would go with a 4 hp, 5hp, or a 6hp?
 
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tin knocker

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Re: used motors

I just this fall had the opportunity to check my speed in the 12/32. With the 5 hp Johnson TN 26 it did 10.5 mph. This was with me alone and a load of decoys forward in the boat. It planed well.
 
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