Powered Pontoon

[JohnLea]

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I need some help/advice with setting up a Scadden Skihomish Sunrise for an arthritic geezer. I will be using it on small lakes and ponds, mostly fly fishing.
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For transporting it, I am able to keep the frame together with the exception of the lean bar.
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I put a trolling motor on the rear deck but I had difficulty in operating it even with a swivel seat. The next step was moving the motor to the front after reversing the head 180 degrees. I plan to wire an extension from the back of the frame to the front following the frame, the idea being to have the wire inside of a length of pvc so that all I need to do is attach the battery and motor and the wire should be out of the way.
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The "permanent" wiring is 6 ga and the motor wire is 10 ga. I am pretty confident that this will be successful but if you see any pitfalls here, please comment. I suspect I will have questions in this area after the initial trial run.
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Right now I have questions about fish finders. I am not sure I understand how to use them but I have done some reading. I have read that they should be installed away from turbulence. But the manufacturer included a trolling motor mount with the FF. It seems to me that the trolling motor will be the source of all turbulence around the pontoon. Am I missing something here?
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I have also read that the transducer should be a couple of inches below the surface but if I attach it to the motor it will be quite a few inches below the surface. Is that OK?
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Finally for now, I bought the FF to see the bottom structure and learn one or two small lakes but how do folks use a FF to target fish? I understand the screen shows what has been and if it is on the screen, you have passed it. What do people do? Cast behind the pontoon? Sit still?
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Thanks.
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John
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[flygoddess]

Hi John and welcome to BFT. I have the same frame that you have only mine is the X5.
As for the motor, I run mine off the back with the head turned 180. I did add the 2 X 4 to the rear deck and the support brackets to hold it in place.
I lock the motor going straight and only use controls to stop and go. Steering with fins. I go backwards only as it uses less power to pull and I have better tracking.
On one motor I sis take the head off and took the 5 speed switch out and mounted it in a metal box for strength. Then used an old radio knob. I used wire ribbon about 5 feet long. The on/off, 5 forward, 3 backwards was now by my side. But going backwards now made the 5 backwards. I am able to keep line out and move without fear of wrapping in the prop.

On Sonar, If have never used the motor mounted for the reason you mentioned, but I know they sell the mounts so it must work. I would be afraid of it hitting the ground in shallow.
Many here as myself mount them to PVC or a pipe so we can swing them out of the way in shallow.
Several ideas here on how to do that.
In my X5, I mounted mine off the rear deck to the side of the motor. Works well. Also, I have it mounted about 1/2" off the ground when boat is on shore, but it is in the water 1" to 2".



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[JohnLea]

I appreciate the response.

Messing with the internals of a motor is too ambitious for me. As well as being beyond my skill level.

I missed the likelihood of fouling the prop with line in front although the loss of a few toes did occur to me. I don't use fins due to bad knees. I am considering raising the seat with a pedestal but that means I can't get the lean bar over my chunky self so I have put that off for now.

I will mount the transducer off the deck and will look for swing away ideas on here. I plan to steal the keel idea that I saw here. I did wonder if filling in between the spokes on the transport wheel would work as a keel but I think that would be more effort that just making a keel.
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[flygoddess]

The wheel has been tried and it works to an extent. You want hands free fishing, you will be getting pre occupied with steering specially if there is any kind of breeze.
I have terrible knees and just dangling feet with flippers in the water is no stress on them. You automatically learn how to turn. There is also the oars. Floating then out and in front, slight push on one will turn you.
You will be able to run the motor on slower speeds and be able to fish longer.
I have also taken the whole head off the motor and using wire connectors and some wire was able to put the head with controls up front.

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[JohnLea]

Moving the head to the front is interesting. I assume that is in conjunction with flippers for steering?
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[flygoddess]

Yes. She chose to not use oars. I prefer to at least have a set with me as I don't trust electric motors 100%.

I have also sparked strikes from rowing. I think that stroke, pause makes the fly act tempting.
Having broke my back a few times and neck problems, the rowing actual helps loosen me up, but I do have to limit it.
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[BigEZ]

Flygoddess has the right idea and I too have turned the head, trolled backward and steered with my fins. My motor is directly behind the seat and makes it really hard to steer, especially going forward because you have to constantly adjust.

Yesterday I added a new steering idea. I used four small pullies with paracord to make a steering system to the side of the seat. In installed a U bolt and a metal bar to the shaft of the motor and will clip on quick disconnect metal rings to the metal bar which allows me to move the cord with my left hand and pivot the motor left or right. I don't have a pic of the motor bracket but here is a shot of the cord and the metal rings connected to each other while the motor is off.

I too am going to remote mount the switch out of my Minn Kota, but learned something from FG in this thread; use a radio knob. I put the motor back together to fish with it tomorrow because the switch is too hard to turn without a knob. The motor is actually a really simple item; everything is labeled and there are very few parts.

Edit: By the way, that PVC in the pic is for my transducer. I have a bow mounted transducer so I screwed it into a T and mounted it on a down pipe so it is about an inch under water when the heavy stuff (motor, battery, uh er me) are on board.
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[JohnLea]

I am impressed with the ingenuity of people here.

I can't use fins so worrying about steering is just something I will have to put up with. I am more concerned with stepping over the front motor mount bar to get to the seat. I will see how I do with that but if it is a pain I will switch to a canoe or jon boat. Assembling these things at ankle height is annoying enough.

I plan to put the transducer on some sort of breakaway PVC gizmo off the back deck.
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[flygoddess]

Versa Vessel/Water Otter did the cable thing years ago. Never took off, maybe you can correct that.
All those cables/ropes scare me[laugh]
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[MasterDaad]

I'm also fighting the steering battle with my pedal pontoon. I can't use fins on it either because my feet are occupied with the propulsion.

I've had some success with a rudder mounted in a tight bracket so it stays where I set it, then running a steering arm near my elbow. When I want to adjust my direction I reach back slightly and bump it with my elbow.

It's far enough out of the way I don't accidentally hit it while fishing normally.
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[idahoron]

When going backwards I just use my fins but when the motor is set for backwards I turn the handle to the back and go forward. Then I use the oars with oar rights to steer watch the video. Ron

http://youtu.be/UF22kL6zTmU
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[mojorizing]

You guys need to understand one thing. Steering with fins is instantaneous. No lag time. No matter how slow you go. Steering with the tiller at a slow speed is almost impossible. It can be done, and it makes a wide slow turn. Damn near have to turn the handle 90 degrees. Too much work. KISS.

Edit:To John, why can't you use fins? If it's to hard to kick because of arthritis, doesnt mean you can't use them for steering does it?
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[MasterDaad]

I can't use fins so worrying about steering is just something I will have to put up with

I get that it's really easy to steer with fins but the poster asking the questions specifically said he CAN'T use them.

I didn't pry into why I just accept that as the conditions of the conversation.

One thing that may help a great deal is one of the fins you can clip onto the electric motor that gives you a big rudder. Adding some sort of keel onto the toon will help as well.

In the case of my pedal pontoon, the mirage drive acts as a keel and the rudder works fairly well but I'm still tweaking the construction.
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[mojorizing]

He said in two different posts, he has arthritis and bad knees. Not sure if the arthritis is in his knees, but again just because he has bad knees, doesn't mean he has to kick, and using fins to steer might be his best bet. My knees aren't the best, and most likely 110% better than his, but using fins to steer, I have never felt any pressure on my knees at any time.
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[flygoddess]

You guys realize everything you are trying has been done. Big Ez, the cable steering, VersaVessel did this 15 or better years ago. MD, the peddling was offered as an accessory from Dave Scadden 15 plus years ago.
The cost and functionality of both made them obsolete. Dave also tried a keel accessory. That too, obsolete.
Comes down to although the OP specified he would not use fins, that fins are the best option for hands free fishing.
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[idahoron]

I would also say that using the fins going backwards doesn't mean he has to kick. He can merely turn by turning his feet with the motor on. Heck the kicking might even be therapeutic so asking a doctor about it might be a good idea. I agree with you hands free fishing means using fins.
Ron
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[pontoonman]

With some boats where a motor can be mounted in front of the legs, it might be possible to steer with the ankle/shin area. A special shaped and angled tiller that hovers between the legs might used to turn the motor. Something like the "big foot" of years ago.

Another possibility is to use wireless remote steering control or mechanical control. The hand remote would be rebuilt or adapted to run with foot or other pressure. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIUIjzxP6WM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zyR8OmJIBM

There are also systems that use 2 motors and steer by adjusting the thrust balance between them. http://freedomelectricmarine.com/blog/20...roduction/

Maybe a skilled hobbiest like MD would be able to work one of these options out for our smaller float tubes or pontoons....

Just some ideas, FWIW. Hope this helps.

Pon




[quote MasterDaad]

I can't use fins so worrying about steering is just something I will have to put up with

I get that it's really easy to steer with fins but the poster asking the questions specifically said he CAN'T use them.

I didn't pry into why I just accept that as the conditions of the conversation.

One thing that may help a great deal is one of the fins you can clip onto the electric motor that gives you a big rudder. Adding some sort of keel onto the toon will help as well.

In the case of my pedal pontoon, the mirage drive acts as a keel and the rudder works fairly well but I'm still tweaking the construction.[/quote]
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[flygoddess]

Cool ideas. The first one would be great on our boat, may look into that, but we are talking a pontoon. A bit bulky and not sure how to use the foot peddle.
The second is also fantastic, but is dropping feet straight down is hard, how will turning your body constantly be.

Last one, again cool boat, but we are still talking pontoon.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]I have motorized my float tube. One of the problems I had was being able to control the on/off and motor speeds. The factory handle extension was too short and I am too inflexible to be able to turn around that far.

I tried a number of homemade handle extensions. I now use about 2 feet of 1/2" blue flex conduit (smurf pipe). It is strong and light...with plenty of flex. I DO use fins for steering mostly but can and do use the extension handle for some tight turns at speed.

Also attaching pics of the way I mount the sonar, using 1/2" PVC. If you leave some of the connections unglued or unscrewed you can just twist them on and off...and adjust them up or down as needed when launching or beaching.


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[flygoddess]

New scenario for TD. The Sky he will be sitting a little higher than you are. Also not knowing the motor or the size, it could be lower than yours.
Here is the same frame mind you, but I have the MAGNUM deck which is 24" deep The stock is 14" I think.
Also, this is the long shaft motor. A Minn Kota 30 will be a lot shorter.

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