New motor mount

[idahoron]

After taking my toon out with the new outboard I knew I had to change something. Going forward was no problem. I was towing a friend in reverse and the motor was trying to cavitate on waves from boats and wind. The OEM motor mount are tubes mounted inside tubes. This was causing the motor to raise in reverse with that and upward thrust it was just not working. Well I decided to just make a new one that was attached to the frame under the seat. I used Unistrut for the frame and for now I used a 2x6 to hook the motor on. In this picture you can see a "high water" line on the motor meets the water line on the toons.





When I sat on it it sank a bit more and the boat was not even. So I adjusted where the frame sits on the toons. After that the motor was again too high. So I lowered the mount.



Today I took it to SFCR and I trolled in reverse for 9 miles. WOW that was a big day. The wind came up about noon and the waves got big. I was happy with how it worked out. A longer shaft would be much better but the 2.6 hp only has one length. Like I said I trolled for 9 miles and I didn't use a tank of gas, .31 gal. I was happy with the new set up. It has tons of power and I don't have to worry about running out of battery. Today I caught a bunch of trout, a few bass and 1 walleye. So far I like the Coleman motor, it starts easy and runs great. More tests to come. [fishon] Ron
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[idahopanfish]

That looks great Ron
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[cpierce]

Good rebuild!

It looks good, and sounds like it is adjusted and working great now. I like that your new mount allows for even more adjustment if you need it. I see you still have a battery box on there. Is your trolling motor attached on the front?

You are going to be a fishing machine this year!
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[flygoddess]

Glad that works. I think we have our motor a little deeper than that however, but if that works, more power to you[] Do you by chance have a before picture? Man the motor must have been barely in.

Don't have a picture of ours in the water, but this will goive you an idea:


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[idahoron]

FG, I didn't have anyone with me to take a picture as I was sitting on the boat to give a depth. That first picture was about where it was running saturday whit me on it after I slid the frame forward to level the boat. I was slow trolling in reverse so I didn't notice a problem until the wind kicked up some waves. If you look at that picture you can see the anti cavitation plate. Just above that is a water line and just above that are bumps on each side of the shaft cover. On Saturday it was sitting about where it was in the first picture but I was on it. When going forward it was not an issue in reverse it was a big issue. Where the water line is above the anti cavitation plate is the proper depth for this motor. Ron
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[flygoddess]

I added a picture of ours. It sits a deeper. Have a friend that has the same motor as you and he too had some problems with the short shaft.
If it works for you, then the battle is won, just looks very shallow. I am just going offf some of the waters we have fished that we are airborne[] Weeeeeee
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[idahoron]

When I built it I wanted the ability to adjust it either way. The distance from the seat to the motor is the same as the OEM mount, so the motor didn't get farther away.

I left the battery box on to carry extra gas or even put the electric motor on for those times I want to use the electric motor. For extra gas I have three MSR fuel bottles that are for a back pack stove I have. They are aluminum bottles that were designed to pressurize for the stove. Two hold 20 oz and one is a 30oz. I carried two of the 20 oz ones just in case for this trip. Both of the 20's would give me a second tank of gas. I had never ran it that long so I was not sure how long a tank would last, still don't.

I like having the box on there to store the gas and a funnel tool kit things like that. This is the bottles I had, a safe way to store the gas. Ron

http://www.cabelas.com/product/MSR-Fuel-...l+Products
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[idahoron]

The short shaft is a problem. If they had a long shaft 2.6 hp I would have jumped on that one. The long shaft 5 hp is almost 400 dollars more than this motor.
After adjusting the motor mount and sitting on it, the water line is where the mfg wants it to be. I would like it a bit deeper but there are two plugs in each side that the water is not supposed to be over the top of.

The suggested depth for motors like these are given for regular boats. In normal circumstances a boat is not ran in reverse but just a little bit over the course of a day. On a normal boat I am sure that in reverse the upward thrust is not like a pontoon.

When going forward the motor digs in and the front of the pontoons rise lowering the motor farther into the water. In reverse the motor rises the back of the boat reducing the depth. I am sure you are aware of this but I add it for folks that might be thinking about a gas motor.

Even the way I have it mounted now if I hit a wave that is in the 18" to 2 foot high range in reverse at speeds over 3 to 4 MPH it will still cavitate. In the air is in the air.

Ron
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[flygoddess]

The cool thing is it looks like you can adjust the height a little.
Gas motors are cool but they too have limitations.....can't run a sonar off one...LOL
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[idahoron]

I couldn't run the fish finder off my trolling motor battery before. [bobdumb]
Ron
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[flygoddess]

why? Is it a fishing buddy? We use regular boat sonars and connecting to the motor battery is all we do. One battery. If we don't use a Minn Kota we use the small rechargeable batteries.
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