Thread: Too big a trolling motor on a small boat?

My buddy has a 28 lb and it has worked on a 16 ft boat for over 20 years and the nice little 30lb battery has never died in a single day of fishing.
Get a suitable proper sized battery, for a 30 lb and I think you wil be satisfied. A 55 lb requires a lot more juice and a LOT heavier battery.

You are carrying the battery to and from your vehicle to the boat and house. I am sure you will not be happy lugging a 75 lb battery back and forth. If the battery stays in the boat go ahead and get a big one.

I lug a battery between 2 boats that are feet apart and it is back breaking just doing that.

Keep it light and simple and you will fish more.

Canepole - here is a picture. By your math I need a 7 lb. thrust trolling motor. (500 / 70 = 7). It also says my 20' superjon only needs a 30 pound thrust motor, but nobody would want that piddly size motor on that big boat. I have a 55 lb. thrust copilot and wish I had twice that.



I've had small, medium and large jonboats. Never have I regretted having the maximum thrust I could hang on it, within reason. What is funny is a guy with 3 trolling motors and 3 batteries on his boat recommended I get a smaller motor and to ask you! LOL!! The 3 motor guy thinks --> I <-- only need a small motor. I guess he doesn't want any competition to reach the good holes.

Carrying the gear is not an issue for me - if it is for some of you folks then start another thread :p

Check with Minnkota and Motorguide about needed thrust. They have thrust scales and I would follow their recommendations.

Don't forget, thrust is a static measurement of force. Once you get moving,thrust dwindles to zero.

Too much thrust can give you just as much problems as not enough.

More thrust, more current.

If you want power, go for the bigger TM. Your money. Just satisfy yourself.

I am just throwing out numbers.

Yep, 7 pounds of thrust would move you. Sigma and Sears and Montgomery Ward sold 10 pound thrust motors last century.

We just power hungry folks......

My boat glass boat does not weigh near 2,100 lbs and I have a 55# thrust. That's fine and dandy if there is no wind. If there is say a 10mph constant wind, the TM will move the boat OK, but the draw on the Battery is huge and I have to be conservative. I pulled a 30lb MG off the boat to stick the 55lb on. The 30lb was a joke in the wind. Fully charged battery kept me from going backwards too fast. If I had my Druthers, I'd druther have something in the 70lb range that would give me proper control in the wind.

I believe the above posted chart was based on no wind by some engineer that knows only numbers and never had any practical experience with what he was creating the chart about. It's like when I contracted out to repair mistakes made by the direct employees while building aircraft. The Engineer in charge would make a proper call out on how to repair the problem on paper. The repair orders would be given to me and I would review them. Then about 1 out of 5 repairs, I would have to schedule a meeting with said Engineer to discuss why his call out could not work and give him options on how he could re-write it to be functional and cost effective to the company. I did this without chastising him, but working with him. We were good for each other. He had the degree and knew how to figure the stress, I had the knowledge in the application and practicality.

I really don't think the Engineer that wrote the thrust chart took all the "what ifs" into account. Dude just crunching the numbers and collecting his check.

I promise you, if I'm in the little 8' rig and a big bad front moves in, I'm wanting to get back to whence I came from asap. Get the power!

First thing let's try to get over is power, or as normally presented on motors, thrust. We could argue all day about this one. As one guy put it, "I've never heard anyone complain about too much power." To a point this is true, but budget, weight, and physical size come in somewhere. Let's just break it out with some general guide lines. I'll say you need enough power to pull into the waves up until they break over the front of the boat. Given that, we can say 14' and under can make do with something in the under 25 lb
range, for 15' - 16' boats we'd look in the 35 lb range, for the standard 18' tournament boat, you'll want 40 lbs or a little better, and big boats need over 50 lbs of thrust, (if you can afford the 20' boat you can afford the big trolling motor.)

Quote Paul Crawford engineer and pro bass fisherman

I would not get too far from shore in that pond boat. I guess I'm chicken poop.

Borrow a tm for someone and try it first if you gonna buy this rig.

Originally Posted by wasabi

Canepole - here is a picture. By your math I need a 7 lb. thrust trolling motor. (500 / 70 = 7). It also says my 20' superjon only needs a 30 pound thrust motor, but nobody would want that piddly size motor on that big boat. I have a 55 lb. thrust copilot and wish I had twice that.



I've had small, medium and large jonboats. Never have I regretted having the maximum thrust I could hang on it, within reason. What is funny is a guy with 3 trolling motors and 3 batteries on his boat recommended I get a smaller motor and to ask you! LOL!! The 3 motor guy thinks --> I <-- only need a small motor. I guess he doesn't want any competition to reach the good holes.

Carrying the gear is not an issue for me - if it is for some of you folks then start another thread :p

I had a 36#MK with Maximizer on something very similar and it worked well. It wouldn't try and throw you out of the boat if you started with the motor sideways.

Originally Posted by PanMan_VA

I had a 36#MK with Maximizer on something very similar and it worked well. It wouldn't try and throw you out of the boat if you started with the motor sideways.

The rig looks like it has a lot of drag. My neighbors rig is pretty flimsy compared to this one. I too a dump in it. Not that kinda dump either...:rolleyes:

I wonder what the manufacturer recommends? I would be asking the manufacturer these questions. I don't trust salesmen..

I have a MK 44 that I use on my Pelican boat that is almost like that. Mine has a side mount battery and side mount livewell and the MK 44 pushes it great. Plus you can cruise around all day with out dropping the battery voltage much.