Re: trolling motor size ?
HI
I asked a similiar question here as well - not too many responses
I did research on several other sites and received lots of great info
Aked several places for a spread sheet or similiar chart that would help us make a good decision never was able to find anything similiar
For me I decided on 80lb thrust for a 17ft metal boat that weighs in at about 1,400lbs without people and equipment
Went with the Minn Kota Terrova 80 w/ iPilot option
Sorry the responses were low. By the time I checked your thread, you had already decided. Besides, Silvertip is the most knowledgeable guy on the Electrical/trolling Motor forum and I usually find that once he has weighed in, I have very little to add, and his responses looked pretty much on the mark, as far as I could tell.
THAT SAID:
As to our friend jerkoz's question, it depends.
I have a 16'10" Lund that weighs in about 1400 lbs before I put my fat butt on it, so add 230 to the tally. I have a 55lb MinnKota Powerdrive V2 that does a a pretty satisfactory job. I generally use it to cruise the shoreline looking for largemouth although I also fish crappie and walleye, mostly
trying to hold position. I-Pilot would be pretty cool there, but it will cost you a few hundred bucks more. I got Co-Pilot on mine, but I really don't think it was worthwhile. Knowing what I know now, I would have either skipped it altogether, or gone for the I-Pilot (which wasn't available then so I not really in the discussion.). I do use it now and then, but not really enough to justify the extra cost. YMMV.
Since 55 lb is the highest thrust available in a 12 volt system, the question really becomes, do you have space for two 12 volt batteries and do you want to maintain two 12v batteries? There have been a lot of threads here about trolling motor size and they mostly come down to this - too much power is better than not enough. You can always turn the oversize motor down a little bit, but you can't turn up the undersize beyond what it has. Again, it depends on how you intend to use it. My 55 lb spends most of its time set on 6 or 7 on the 10 scale of the speed control. Sometimes 8 if it's really windy. On the other hand, if I wanted to use it to travel any distance, 10 is not really adequate.
Relative to KJINTF's thread, I would have said that 80 lb was overkill for his boat, but I bet it will be fun. Again, too much power can be turned down. Make sure everybody is sitting down before you hit the go pedal at full power.
OK, I'm rambling a little bit, but I looked back on some other threads on trolling motor size questions and found one from a guy who had a relatively small boat, but his local lakes were electric only. Good case for getting the biggest you can afford.
As I said at the beginning, it depends.
