Quote Originally Posted by Crestliner08 View Post
The first application for side pulling will be with a 12' Aluminum modified V-hull. The gunnels are not that far from the water and the 40# thrust motor we have has a 36" shaft, so I do not think that will be a problem.....but we'll check it out this week sometime (still waiting for winter to abate!).

Walt's boat is a 16' Tracker Panfish which has low gunnels, so that will not be a problem either. Being as we are on limited budget these days, we are going to fabricate a "false" transom to hang the motor over the side of each boat. We'll make it moveable to start with, as each boat will require a different position, based on the hull design characteristics. Once we establish the correct position, we can make the mount more permanent. This boat will be our primary side puller.
When I posted earlier I had assumed that by side pulling you meant mounting the trolling motor near the front of the boat and trolling. After some reading I'm seeing that side pulling is a completely different technique, and you actually want to pull the boat long-ways across the water. For that application, I think it would work perfectly.

On the side of the boat I doubt that the motor will be too short.

A mount that swivels so you can just rotate the motor parallel with the gunnels when not in use would be slick, so that it's not sticking out inside the boat and in the way.