Anybody using an electric trolling motor on their drift boat? Any suggestions for amount of thrust needed? Any other thoughts regarding picking a motor or installing? I will primarily use to motor downstream thru nonproductive water but may also use on small lakes.
stevehaun,
The major item is the size of your drift boat and how many people you are going to carry. Torque and thrust are the big numbers that
should be considered when buying an electric motor. If you buy it at wall-mart, you are on your own. A dealer should know the right
thrust motor for your boat. If you know the brand you want, call the mfg. for info on thrust to boat weight ratio. I use a 35# thrust on
my 10’ Livingston and it pushes me around on lakes just fine.
CRUNCHY
Steve,
In addition to the amount of thrust that Crunchy mentioned, another big concern is battery charge life.
You want as much power as you can afford. You’ll never regret having more pounds of thrust. All electric motors come with variable speeds, so you can always slow down. Having enough power to push you back to the launch site into a stiff breeze or current is always a plus…but…
More power equals more amp draw on the battery. Any motor you buy will show you how much power it will use at different motor settings. You really need to take the time to look at this information and be sure you understand it before making a purchase. Many folks buy a 35 to 45 pound thrust motor and are then amazed when it will only run a couple of hours at full power. That’s not a problem if you can carry a second battery, but if you have moved several miles from your launch site and then find yourself with a drained battery, it’s a long row home.
Using a high quality deep cycle battery(ies), knowing how long it will last, and getting at least the minimum amount of thrust for your boat will make the purchase a sound one. Otherwise, it can be a frustrating experience.
Good Luck!
Buddy
Long distance …big headwind…low battery = no fun
I have never installed an electric trolling motor on my driftboat - 16’ low profile Clackacraft. However, I do have an electric trolling motor for my 80#, 12’ 3" cataraft - I think it is a 35# Minn Kota - and it pushes that boat like there’s no tomorrow - however, I’d want a considerably larger motor than that for my driftboat (another 200# of weight of the boat, plus passengers).
One thing I quickly learned from using the motor on my cataraft is that it needed a keel to keep it moving on a straight line. I lash an oar alongside the boat with the blade in the water, and that works fine - I don’t know what, if anything, you’d do on a drift boat.
Other than that, I’d think it would be relatively easy to affix either a rear or a side mounted motor, but you may need an extended length shaft for it.
John
Not to put a damper on the choice but, know that most states now require ANY water craft that is propelled by an artificial means, nto human powered, must be registered. This includes canoes, kayaks, float tubes, etc. That said, I have two electric trolling motors I have used on my canoe, both work great. Also have a 5 horse gas motor for my 12’ aluminum and 11’ metzler maya raft. I just haven’t used them because I have trouble with the idea of registering a canoe or a rubber raft!!
Wyoming was one of the last states to go this route.
My drift boat is a 16 foot clackacraft low profile. It is already licensed but I may have to change my license if I add the motor. Thanks!
As I recall, 100 # of thrust is about the same as a 1 Hp gas. I used a 2 Hp gas on a 16 foot drift boat and it was just barely enough against a strong current in a river. Also, many rivers outlaw motors of any sort for obvious reasons.
Bob
Here’s a link to a motor mount offered by Hyde: http://store.hydeoutdoors.com/?c=motorsmounting
You can get a bit more info on motor mounts if you do a google search.
I personally use an 8 horse honda motor with a long shaft on my Hyde dirfit boat; however, it is only used on the lake when I am using the motor. My friend has a Minnkota with a long shaft that he attaches to his Fish Rite aluminum drift boat while fishing lakes and it works fine — and a lot lighter than my Honda motor. You do need to recharge it every night.
Try this link at Minn-Kota to help you determine what you need:
http://www.minnkotamotors.com/selectamotor/
I personally am thinking about going to a bow mount with the remote or wireless control for my Jon Boat.
Steve
Some states do not require you to register your craft if it is under 10’ long or uses a motor under 10HP. If you are also looking for
an outboard motor to compare, here is a site to look at. onlineoutboards.com. They have outboards at 9.8HP to get around this.
Crunchy
The motor should be sized to the length of the boat rather than weight. Minnkota motor selector does decent job but you need to remember that they are trying to make money - bigger motor=more profit, that tool has tendency to overestimate. As to power consumption : all of of the low end motors consume the same amount of power regardless of the power setting. You need to look for stuff like “Digital Maximazer” or “Digital Efficiency” - only these motors will consume less power at lower settings. And another thing to consider - drifting means hitting hard objects with your motor. The shaft of the motor will take most of the impact. I wuld consider moting the motor on “breakaway” mount and my prefernce here would be Minnkota over Motor Gude since their shafts flex. BTW these two are really the only chices letf in this field…
There is just something not right about putting a motor on a drift boat…
After looking at the Minn Kota site and selection tool, I think I could get by with the Endura 55 or Traxxis 55. They both use one battery. I could step up to the Traxxis 70 for more power. However, it uses 2 batteries. This singificantly ramps up the cost because I will need to buy two batteries and a double charger. That said, I’d hate to buy the smaller one and find that it did not have enough power.
I used a 42 lb thrust Minnkota on my driftboat for years to blow through frog water. This had plenty of power moving downriver. In fact with the rocks in the rivers up here that we can float, I wouldn’t want to go any faster. It was adequate, but a few years ago I went to a 4 horse Yamaha gas motor. The thing I like about that is it allows me the option of putting in and motoring up a river to drift back down to the put in/take out. No shuttle needed and gives me another option. The trolling motor would not allow me to do that.
skes01:
Do you mount your outboard next to the anchor (slightly off the midline) or did you modify your anchor bracket?
Steve-
Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I was away. Yes, I do mount it next to the anchor. I did put a wedge under the anchor bracket to offset it away from the outboard.
Scott
I have never used a drift boat, but if I understand you are going to use the trolling motor to move through slow moving water in a river. A couple of thoughts, I think trolling motors are better at pulling a boat than pushing it, I have my jon boat wired to supply power to trolling motors at each end. Fishing lakes for bass and bream this allow the fisherman at each end to keep in position. There are wireless foot control available where the boat can be steered from anywhere in it. It just depend on how much money you want to spend.