Trolling motors....

[Bluegillman]

I see everyone's pic of them fishing and spot the trolling motors in back on the toons....
Looks to me that u would have to reach behind u to turn it on and steer....
Wonder if anyone did something different on it? My brother and bother in law have those on their boats and uses the foot control.
Why not change that instead of foot control try a joystick?
It can be mounted on the side right by you.....
Just a thought.....
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[flygoddess]

Personally, I turn the motor on and steer with my flippers. The motor stays in one position.
I do loosen the head of the motor and turn the prop so it is facing the same direction as the head. Then tighten an leave it like that.
Pontoons don't steer that great. They are not built for it. They have No Keel, or rudder, like regular boats.
It is possible to steer the boat with the motor, but you have to have the motor go a little faster and they don't respond as quickly.
I had a friend put a remote control motor on his boat and was not happy at all.
North Fork Outdoors made a rudder that works OK. Then another company plus NFO put out a pontoon with keels, but they were too expensive for the small demand.

I modified my older Minn Kota by taking the head off, attaching a wire harness of 4' and a small metal box from radio shack and a big radio knob.
That was great. Now the speed, on off, and forward reverse, were right next to me. That motor died last year and the new motor is under warranty still[cool]
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[albinotrout]

I was helping another member with his toon and this same question came up. We came up with several designs to build a keel, but in the end decided upon flippers as the best tool. Especially after he tried it out today without the flippers.[sly]
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[MaDFisher55]

Im the guy Albinotrout is talking about. Let me explain.

Im the kind of person that when I get something in my head I think will work, I just have to try it out. Some times it works, some times not. this was one of the NOT times. Trust me when I say don't try to reinvent the wheel. These people here have been doing this for long time.

It only took me about 5 min on the water until I saw the error of my ways. Absoutly no control moving forward and trying to stear with the motor.

After watching kevin effortlessly go where he wanted to go backwards while fishing behind the movment controling it with his fins was art in itself.

Keep it simple, Listen to what these great people here have to say.

My name is MaDFisher55 and Im a "bull headed non listener".

Admitting that I have a problem is the first step to recovery, right? []
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[pontoonman]

I have seen several inventor's mail order places come and go with unusual products to customize troll motors. Tested quite a few over the years when I was in the dingy stage working my way down to pontoons. There were some kits which installed on a troll that used a metal rod mechanical linkage for steering that worked well, as I recall. There was also a "shark fin" kit which enclosed the troll motor and provided a flat surface above and below to serve as a keel and/or sensitive rudder. The troll motor keel worked too well at high speeds- in the fact that it was oversensitive. But it was great at low speeds, allowing one to turn withing your own boat length.

If you like to tinker, your might be able to work out something along those lines.

Hope this helps.

Pon


[quote Bluegillman]I see everyone's pic of them fishing and spot the trolling motors in back on the toons....
Looks to me that u would have to reach behind u to turn it on and steer....
Wonder if anyone did something different on it? My brother and bother in law have those on their boats and uses the foot control.
Why not change that instead of foot control try a joystick?
It can be mounted on the side right by you.....
Just a thought.....[/quote]
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[flygoddess]

I tried to find a picture of the KEEL Dave Scadden came up with, but can't find it anywhere.
But, here is the simple mods I did on my motor (Minn Kota 30)




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[pontoonman]

Here's a new kayak motor from Torqueedo with steering linkage:

http://www.torqeedo.com/us/hn/products/u...ption.html

Lightest commercial motor/battery combo at 15#, but big $$$ and noisy gearbox for their travel model. Maybe this or their travel model can be adapted to a tube or pontoon?

Pon
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[albinotrout]

Very interesting. Trying to mount it on a tube or toon would be a task for sure.
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