Homemade Electric Trolling Motor Stabilizer

[BearLakeFishGuy]

Ok, so I was too cheap to part with over $50 for a trolling motor stabilizer. That "thriftiness" led to this homemade job that cost me less than $12 and is probably stonger than the store-bought ones! First off, anyone that has a bow-mount electric trolling motor probably has a concern about the motor bouncing around when running with it in the "up" position. Here is a picture of how mine is mounted.
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At the top end of the motor I made my stabilizer (i.e. "hold down") out of some easy-to-find stuff at the local hardware store. Here is are several pics of how it looks.
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List of parts:
1" slip PVC "t" fitting with 1/2" threaded on one of the T's (cut lengthwise through the slip ends)
2 hose clamps 1.25" diameter
2- 1/2 x 3/8" galvanized bushings
2 - 3/8" x 1/4" brass double male fittings
1 - 1/4" female air hose end
1 - 1/4" quick release air hose fitting
1- 1/2" threaded & flanged brass fitting (I cut the PEX nipple off with a hacksaw)
black spray paint
brass bolts and nuts for mounting on boat

Assemble them as in the photos. I wrapped the shaft of the trolling motor with some of the "emergency tape" before putting on the PVC "t" so it would fit tighter and to not slip around on the shaft. The female air hose end and PVC "t" stays attached the top of the trolling motor shaft. The rest stays mounted on the boat (or could easily be unscrewed from the flanged base if you needed to cover you boat and didn't want the stabilizer poking up through the boat cover).

Simple, inexpensive, very solid, and works perfectly.
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[Kent]

Creative and effective -- well done.
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[wiperhunter2]

Nice set up Scott, thanks for sharing your idea. One question though, where did you get the bottom piece or flanged base as you called it?
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[BearLakeFishGuy]

I got that at the local hardware store up here, so I KNOW they would have that at Home Depot or Lowes. It was a fitting with 1/2 pipe thread going to a 90 degree elbow that had a barbed PEX male fitting. The PEX part was chopped off with a hacksaw. This is what it originally looked like:
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