My boy has a 17.5 tracker boat with a 55 lb I-pilot and does OK. I have a 16' Carolina Skiff and I have that same trolling motor and I do OK also. Neither one of us goes fishing if there's a 15-20 mph wind though.:rolleyes::o
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My boy has a 17.5 tracker boat with a 55 lb I-pilot and does OK. I have a 16' Carolina Skiff and I have that same trolling motor and I do OK also. Neither one of us goes fishing if there's a 15-20 mph wind though.:rolleyes::o
I just put a Terrova on my 18' Lowe 180 last year. The motor I removed was a Evinrude 48# cable controlled unit and it came up a little short in the wind. I looked
in my Grizzly catalog and the Powerdrive 70 and the Terrova 80 only come as 24 volt units. Switching to 24 volt isn't hard, it's only two 12 volt batteries in series.
With a 24 volt setup you would have twice the runtime over a 12 volt motor with same thrust as you're only drawing 1/2 the amps for the same amount of thrust.
NOTE: the higher thrust motors do require #6 wire from the batteries to the front of the boat.
JOE
Max speed is 3.5 mph with 80# Terrova on a VT17. I think I pilot does ever bit of that when in Spot-Lock mode and trying to get back into the 5' circle.
Go with the 80# Terrova, with I-Pilot you will love It !not hard to go with 2 batteries if you have room, I changed from 12v to 24 v , just make sure you go with the right size wire & breaker, , who ever you get the TM from ask them to also set you up with all you will need ,
You should not need to go to heavier wire or CB. A 24 volt system will draw only 1/2 the amperage as the same 12 volt system and wire size is based on ampacity.
"Beware" - my line is almost horizontal when its trying to get back in the 5 foot circle. If it would ease back in it would be nice, but mine races back.
I now just use the infinite speed on the pedal to try to keep me where I want to be or just drift over the spot.
I'm glad it works for you, just aint cuttin it for me.
i have a 17 fter with 55 powerdrive ipilot and wish i would have went bigger,but i pull cranks in the summer is the reason why because u want to stay 1.5mph of faster.if i was just a regular fisherman and didnt pull cranks i believe the 55 would be suffecient.