I am looking at getting a 14ft or 16ft Alumacraft aluminum boat. The 14ft has a max rating of 20hp and the 16ft has a max of 25hp. How will though will a big motor troll though? I am sure the big motor will be a help in the wind and getting me across the lake but can they troll effectivly? Would i be better off with a 10hp motor?
Mark
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i am in this process now myself, i have a 14 foot alum semi-V. i have a 7.5 horse now, it isnt enough when wind and waves get bad, i was debating going to a 9.9, but if im rated for 25hp, i think i am wanting a 15 to move me better and give me a bit more power when needed, any more than the 15 i am not sure i can get the slow speeds for trolling and that will be total idle in gear for the 15 to get 1.5 or 2 mph out of it, other wise i want the extra power for when i am carrying more people, gear, FISH!! LOL. i want to find a evinrude, but i guess the lower HP motors for them are produced by Johnson now, good motor still but i am looking into other products as well. My big feature i want is a gas tank on top of the motor, i dont want to have to deal with a setup of gas can piped to the motor, i dont have a trailor (yet) and i take the motor off, i know there are qwik connect fitting for the fuel lines and all but then i have to deal with the gas can that will be much bigger than the 2 gallon one i carry now...smallest i have seen for this is 5 gallons so it doubles my gas load. just what i have come up on lately, the nissan motors look pretty sweet too.
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I have a 14' aluminum boat and it has a Mercury 20 horse on it. It is about perfect in that I can go 25mph by myself, about 20 with 2 people in it and about 15 on Strawberry with 3 people in it. It won't troll down slow enough for trout, so I have an electric motor for that. It goes as slow as about 2.9 mph (gps), which is pretty good for Wipers, but if I plan on going somewhere that I need to troll for a long time a slower speeds, I put my Johnson 15 on it instead, (It is my trolling motor I use on my big boat also) and it will troll down to 1.5 mph...the bad part about the Johnson 15 is that top speed is only about 15 to 17 mph. Slower with 3 people! Optimally, get a 20 or 25 horse for the main motor, then about an 8 horse or so for your troller and have them both on the boat all the time!
There is no such thing as a perfect boat for all conditions.
Randy
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Had a Deep-V 14ft Alum with 25hp on it .Did great on it.
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I have a 14 ft aluminum and have found the necessity for a big motor (25hp) very important for getting off the water in a hurry and handling the chop and W, and heck it is just plain convenient especially if you are going to fish with multiple people. The big motors will troll slow enough for wipers at approx 3mph +/-.
I purchased a 30 lb thrust minkota electric and on one battery it will troll the 14' for 4-5 hours at 3mph and under depending on wind and waves. You can get the 30 lb thrust minnkota's at sportsmans for around $100.00 and a deep cycle battery at Wallyworld for $50-60. I spent a little more to get a higher amp hour battery.
If you are going to run electrical equipment (ie lights, sonar
etc) or have an electric start motor, you may need to have two batteries one exclusively for your trolling motor and the other for the starter?
Good luck with your decision.
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This is a pretty loaded question. There are a lot of factors that can affect what size motor you need here. The first is the boat itsself. Some are a bit wider and sit on top of the water more, while some are narrower and sit deeper in the water. These could affect how much drag the boat has on the water. The other thing is the type of motor. 2 strokes handle a lot differently than the newer 4 strokes. With a 2 stroke, it also depends on how well the motor is tuned, how you set the mixture, elevation, pitch of prop, etc.
With these smaller boats I would probably get a motor that is near the maximum size and just put a trolling plate on the motor. This will usually slow the motor down enough to troll. I don't recommend these for the larger boats / engines, but they would do great on the 20hp motors.
Another post mentioned wanting a larger (9.9 or larger) motor with a top mount gas tank. I don't know if these are even available. My one concern with that is how much gas the tank can hold, and how heavy it would be to lift the motor to the boat since you don't have a trailer. Yes, it's more trips to haul the motor then the gas can, but it's a LOT less weight. The other thing is that these motors go through a lot more gas than the little 4hp motors do, and you might not last through a day with a top mount tank. I use the 5 gallon plastic gas cans you can get for this specific use (they lay down with a low profile). I got mine from WalMart, and use the hose with the quick disconnect. I used these on my 12' aluminum, my 14' foot aluminum, and still use it on the 19' I/O boat I have now.
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I just bought my 16 ft this spring and went with a 6hp nissian from cabellas. Price was good and it trolls great just slow as a dog getting in but you have to choose either a good trolling motor or a bigger motor that will get you in faster usually you can't have both. If you have the money a 25hp and 3hp kicker would be perfect!
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