Thread: Trolling Motor

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

Originally Posted by gabowman

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 got the same tracker and TM it will run 2.5 mph on high.

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.

Originally Posted by Stymie

Awight, I wasn't goin to bring this up since you were talkin trollin motors. But beware of IPilot and a higher thrust TM on a lighter aluminum boat. The spot lock function is .... shall we say less than desirable.

Not sure what you're saying to "beware" of and I agree that the spot lock feature is a little sloppy but I still love it.

"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.

Originally Posted by Stymie

"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 agree with you that the corrections are too abrupt.