05-13-2012, 03:54 PM
We have two options forward or reverse. Just like with an electric motor reverse is best for fishing in my opinion. At slow trolling speeds it just makes more sense.
For travel to or from a spot is the actual topic of this post.
If the water is flat forward is great. you can see where your going and with everything out of the water the boat gets more speed. The problem with going forward is rough water. If you have waves that are of any size at all you get spray off the nose of the pontoons. I am sure that a closed front like the X5 is much better but on a open front the spray from rough water is tough to deal with.
So we go to reverse. When I am in reverse the motor is locked down and I use my feet to steer with. First problem with this and a gas motor. The gas motors have so much power that it could drag you from the boat. As the speed increases the pull on your legs makes it hard to stay in the seat. if you loosen the motor and pull your feet up out of the water the pontoon is hard to control. But in reverse the spray off the toons is much easier to deal with.
My solution so far is reverse and slow down to keep the front from coming out of the water on big waves. 3 MPH seems to keep the "jumping" to a minimum on big waves. The spray is blocked by the motor, seat and gear on the back.
Towing is the next thing to deal with. I have tried several ways. I tried going forward and using a rope to the towed boat. The guy tied to the frame to start with. That was no good at all. The towed boat was all over the place and I could not keep it straight. Next going forward and attaching the pontoons together at the ends. This was another failure. The motor is in the middle and steering is impossible.
I didn't try to tie the ends of the towed boat together and pulling from that. It could work but the problem would you need to pull from dead center or the towed boat is out of control.
What I finally did was went in reverse and tied the front of the towed boat to my frame up close so both boats worked as one. I had to steer with the motor but this worked well. But the problem I had was the power of the gas motor lifted the OEM motor mount about 3" and caused the motor to cavitate. That is another reason I decided to make a new motor mount. I do tow other boats a lot.
There is a lot of differences between gas motors and electric motors. Setting up a gas motor is a challenge. To anyone that is thinking about doing this. You will probably need to change the motor mount. Also you should think about a long shaft motor. I know I have left off some thoughts but I wanted to start conversation in case someone else wants to try this. Ron
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For travel to or from a spot is the actual topic of this post.
If the water is flat forward is great. you can see where your going and with everything out of the water the boat gets more speed. The problem with going forward is rough water. If you have waves that are of any size at all you get spray off the nose of the pontoons. I am sure that a closed front like the X5 is much better but on a open front the spray from rough water is tough to deal with.
So we go to reverse. When I am in reverse the motor is locked down and I use my feet to steer with. First problem with this and a gas motor. The gas motors have so much power that it could drag you from the boat. As the speed increases the pull on your legs makes it hard to stay in the seat. if you loosen the motor and pull your feet up out of the water the pontoon is hard to control. But in reverse the spray off the toons is much easier to deal with.
My solution so far is reverse and slow down to keep the front from coming out of the water on big waves. 3 MPH seems to keep the "jumping" to a minimum on big waves. The spray is blocked by the motor, seat and gear on the back.
Towing is the next thing to deal with. I have tried several ways. I tried going forward and using a rope to the towed boat. The guy tied to the frame to start with. That was no good at all. The towed boat was all over the place and I could not keep it straight. Next going forward and attaching the pontoons together at the ends. This was another failure. The motor is in the middle and steering is impossible.
I didn't try to tie the ends of the towed boat together and pulling from that. It could work but the problem would you need to pull from dead center or the towed boat is out of control.
What I finally did was went in reverse and tied the front of the towed boat to my frame up close so both boats worked as one. I had to steer with the motor but this worked well. But the problem I had was the power of the gas motor lifted the OEM motor mount about 3" and caused the motor to cavitate. That is another reason I decided to make a new motor mount. I do tow other boats a lot.
There is a lot of differences between gas motors and electric motors. Setting up a gas motor is a challenge. To anyone that is thinking about doing this. You will probably need to change the motor mount. Also you should think about a long shaft motor. I know I have left off some thoughts but I wanted to start conversation in case someone else wants to try this. Ron
[signature]