Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I am looking for your best suggestions for a battery operated trolling motor and details about how you mounted it as well!

Do a search in the General Discussion areas, there are lots of discussions about trolling motors. There was just one the other day that talked about having a wireless remote.
Get at least a 24 Volt unit with as much thrust as you can afford. It should be sized for your boat, because if it is undersized you are going to be very unhappy when you get any kind of wind. All that mass above the water just gets pushed around very easily if you don't have power at the front end

It all depends on how large your pontoon is, and the conditions you're going to be in. Pontoons are not very aerodynamic in the wind, and the currents also push'em around.

Most people will tell you to get a 70 lb. thrust trolling motor. I also like the remote controls so you can control it from the driver's console.

26' and a barge like all the rest.

I have a 70# 24 volt on my 22' and lake isabell, ca seems to always have afternoon wind...works for me....
question:: how do we figure HP from thrust? just curious

My boat is 22' long and I only have 55#, 12 volts. But, it pulls my boat around as much as I need it to. I haven't experienced strong winds while trolling, so I can't offer testimony on that aspect. I appreciate the Autopilot feature more than anything.

Kevin

killerkernrich wrote:question:: how do we figure HP from thrust? just curious

There's a lot of differing answers to this one. The short answer is that one is work-related and one is energy-related so it's difficult to just answer it.

55 lbs thrust at 5 MPH calculates to 0.73 HP for a typical boat
75 lbs thrust at 5 MPH is about 1 HP

I have a 54 lb thrust on my 21' foot party barge .It does pretty well but in a high wind with several people on the boat it is underrated!If you can afford it I would get the 70 or 80 lb. thrust.You have to consider that the 70 and above requires 2 batteries 24V do you have at least a dual bank charger.If not that is another expense! The 54 lb is 12V one battery.

Johnathan, if you are asking me ....yes I have a dual bank charger on the 2 battery 24 volt 70# . Only thing is when the 1st owner had it rigged, he didn't have the merc engine wired to put a charge back to the system, so I carry a 400 watt inverter and hook it up while running.

killerkernrich wrote:Johnathan, if you are asking me ....yes I have a dual bank charger on the 2 battery 24 volt 70# . Only thing is when the 1st owner had it rigged, he didn't have the merc engine wired to put a charge back to the system, so I carry a 400 watt inverter and hook it up while running.

Actually
I was talking to g8tors09.He was asking what trolling motor to buy.I wanted him aware of the additional setup and equipment for 24V.
Sounds like a great setup to me!

26' boat 12v minnkota 55.

good untill winds get above 10-15mph.

i wouldve gone w/24v and more thrust but i already had a 100lb 12v batt for the stereo. the thing lasts for weeks on a charge

I recently installed a Motorguide 75 wireless on my pontoon. The wireless function is great as you can be anywhere on the boat and control everything. I have a 20" pontoon on a small lake in Texas where we frequently have to cope with a lot of wind. The "75" handles the wind quite well. This is a 24 volt system - so far I've trolled for four hours straight without the battery indicator dropping below the top indicator level.

Are they easily hooked up to a generator. I was going to get one of the honda small ones. This is mainly for flounder gigging.

Here's mine, 12 volt 55# thrust motorguide wireless. It mounted on my 24' and pulls it around at a top speed of 5mph!!! I'm extremely happy with it, I didn't want a 24 volt because I didn't want two batteries!!!!!! I have a quick release plate so I can take it off easily! Only thing I didn't like was I had to mount it farther forward to make it fold up and down right, so the skeg sticks past the bow of my boat about 3"s...but it's not that big of a deal because you can take it off so fast

g8tors09 wrote:Are they easily hooked up to a generator. I was going to get one of the Honda small ones. This is mainly for flounder gigging.

I have a Honda 2000 generator.It has a 12V terminal for battery charging but don't think the 12V socket will produce enough amps for the T.M.

Best place I found for the Honda is wisesales.com They go for $1200 most places they have them for $879 delivered no tax if not in Minnesota.It is good up to 16.8 amps @110V.And it runs a light and room A.C. on my boat !Runs 6 hrs on 1 gallon gas.I bought the special cap to adapt to my mail ship fuel tank for endless operation!