sneaker

Here is a pic of my home made. I have more fun on the water than anyone I see (I think) and it has never seen 5 mph unless while on the truck. ' alt='>Here is a pic of my home made. I have more fun on the water than anyone I see (I think) and it has never seen 5 mph unless while on the truck. '>

I think W2S is right on regarding Maximizers and batterys. The maximizer will more than double your run time when at lower power settings cutting your battery costs in half for the same performance as a 5/3 speed motor. If you have a boat over 12 ft long, I would recommend a 40 lb motor. The larger motor will draw the same battery current as the smaller one when operated at the same boat speed (because they are doing the same amount of work), but will have the extra power you will need when dealing with wind or load. The extra 40 bucks are worth it. I fish a 12 ft kayak and have used motors from 26 to 50 lb thrust. All push this light boat at the same max speed within +- .2 mph. I found the 50 is too heavy and the 26 too light.

The panel doesn't provide enough power to help, even if it was free. Your motor will draw about 5-7 amps when the throttle is in the first 2-3 power settings. The panel you are considering delivers .15 amps in bright sunlight, and probably will average .1 amps over the course of a day (8 hours). Therefor in 8 hours it will provide .1 x 8 = .8 ampere hours of power to your battery. That will be enough to run your motor at 6 amps for .8/6 x 60 = 8 mins. Not much help. Way to much money. :'(

The additional weight of the Alu prop will not affect the motor operation. The diameter and pitch of the prop will, but not much. The most common cause of motor burn out is getting the prop full of weeds, or stuck in the mud, and then giving it full throttle. A motor with the prop stalled (can't turn) will smoke in just a few seconds. I have a 55 lb 12v motor that I put several props on in search of a little more speed, and it took a prop from a 9.8 hp gas motor to get the full throttle current up to 50 amps, the max the motor is specified to draw. And the boat didn't go any faster when drawing 50 amps. But that is a different story. Just be careful trying to make salad out of weeds. Be careful using the throttle to clear the prop. It can get very expensive. :-/

The group 24 batts are good for 75-80 amp hours and the grp 31 are about 100-110 AHs. the grp 27s are in between. No other difference except the size and weight. If the 24s are good enough, they are easier to carry and less expensive. I have used them for years on my light kayak and haven't wore one out yet.

One more comment can't hurt can it? Don't substitute a fully charged battery in a 2 battery string for a dead one. It will result in badly over discharging the remaining battery, possibly reversing its output polarity, and it becomes toast. If you want back power up you need 2 additional batteries or a pair of oars. Make sure your positive battery connection is a RED wire and the Negative a BLACK one. Then you are much less likely to reverse the connections. This means the + red lead of batt 1 must become a black lead before it connects to - of batt 2. However if you are only powering a motor with the battery, reversing one battery will not harm anything, you simply won't have any power at the motor, ie one battery output will cancel the other. On the other hand if you have other electronics connected to the reversed battery, they might be damaged. I use a smart charger that charges the battery at 30 amps until it is 75% charged and then falls back to a 10 or lower rate until the battery is 100 % charged. You can select the initial charge rate for 2-10-30 amps so it will work for smaller batterys also. Bought it at Lowes for 75 bucks and it works well. Made by Vector.

When you get a circuit breaker for your motor look for a type 1 breaker. This breaker is a manual reset breaker that requires you to push a small button on the part to reset it. The alternative is a type 2 breaker, it will reset as soon as the internal current sensing element cools off. This results in power being re-applied to the motor when you don't expect it, and possibly causing an accident. In case the seller doesn't know the type of the breaker he is offering, look for the little reset button on the part. Don't go home without it. They are the only kind the coast guard will approve in this type of application. Not that you are concerned with the approval of the C/G, but there is a good reason for their concern.

On the west coast we use both. The CB is used for a chat line between the boats and is helpful to locate fish being caught by other boats. The government (coast guard, bridges, port facilities) are on VHF and will not respond to a CB call. CB chan 9 is pretty useless. VHF chan 16 will always get you help. A Cell Phone is nice and a number of folks use 911 for an emergency services, if you are lucky enough to get a signal.

Check also the starter drive gear. It is on the starter shaft with spiral splines that push the drive gear into the ring gear on the flywheel when the starter turns over. It may be sticking on the starter shaft and unable to move into the ring gear. The drive gear should freely move out the starter shaft against the return spring.

I agree that a bow mounted motor provides better boat control. I have fish a bass boat for years and wouldn't do it any other way. However when the electric is your primary power I think the stern mount will be a safer way to go if the water gets rough, and it is more useful at the launch/recovery site.

I have used a MK40 12 volt motor for primary power several years and here are a few things i have learned in the process. MK favors a lower pitch prop of large diameter to give lots of static thrust and good 'coupling' to the water. Most of their props have a 4 inch pitch and will push or pull a boat at about 4-6 mph. A 4 inch pitch prop will move ahead 4 inches for every revolution of the prop if the boat has no drag. The MK40 motor is rated for 40 amps max current. Your motor will draw maximum current from the battery when the boat is tied to the dock and the throttle at max. As soon as the boat begins to move the current will drop. This is because the motors are constant rpm/volt motors. With 12 volts applied, mine turns 1800 with the prop in the water or out of the water. The motor at full throttle is doing less work when the boat is moving than when it is not. Mine typically drops from 35 amps at full load (boat stopped/max throttle) to 28 amps when at 4.3 mph. So it is operating at about 70% of its rated power at full throttle and 4.3 mph (28/40). MK seems to limit the motor current to about 40 amps for all 31/2 inch to 4 inch diameter motors. This is probably the best they can do with the size of the brushes that will fit in the available space. So to get more power, they have to go to a higher voltage. The maxim 101 motor is rated at 37 AMPS at 36 volts. If it behaves like a 12 volt motor, it will probably draw about 30 amps on a moving boat at full throttle. A group 31 battery (12 volt) weighs 70-75 lbs and is usually rated at 100 amp hours. You will need 3 of them. The battery is good for a limited number of discharge/charge cycles and typically are specified to be good for 200-300 cycles when discharged to a 20% charge condition. However you can double that number of cycles by limiting the discharge level to 50% according to Trojan Battery. So lets assume you discharge to 35%, you get an easy300 cycles and can use 65 amp hours each trip. This battery set will run your motor at full throttle for about 65ah/30A = 2 hours at about 4-5 mph for a distance of 9 miles. At half throttle you will use 15-20 amps and get 3.5 mph for about 3.3 hours for a distance of 13 miles. So slowing down a bit gets you further and is easier on the battery. The above estimates are based on what i have measured on my boat. Scaling up the 12v to 36 volts and my 12 footer to your 15 is not a precise process, but I think the numbers are realistic, and help full. As to horsepower- a 36v motor at 40 amps uses 1440 w of power. It takes 746 w of power to equal 1 hp, so the motor uses 36 x 40/746=1.44 hp of electricity. The motor is about 85% efficient, so you get 1.23 horses at the prop. My info shows all MK motors above 55 lb thrust have continuous variable throttles and I am assuming you are not using a 5/3 position throttle motor. I prefer a stern mount motor as it allows a better balance of the boat. Have fun and enjoy the fresh air and quiet operation of the electric power.

One other thing you might consider. Trolling motors of similar thrust use the same amount of power at full throttle. But when you use partial throttle, that is most of the time for me, those with a continuously variable throttle will use 1/2 to 1/4th of the power that the 5 speed motors use. You will get a much longer run time on a battery charge. They cost more, and you will have to decide if the trade is worth it.

Sounds like you have a 4-5 speed motor and a standard prop. These motors can operate with any voltage up to their rated maximum, in your case 12 v. So the 6 volt battery is OK. Trolling a crappie jig is slow work, and even if you could slow the prop to the desired speed, your boat would be very sensitive to wind speed and direction. Dragging a bucket (or sea anchor) would allow you to have much better speed control when going that slow. If you can live with the reduced maximum speed using 6 volt battery, you will get twice the trolling time that you would get using 12 volt battery of the same physical size . If you have other electrical equipment on the boat (bilge pump, fish finder ect.) be sure they can live with the 6 volt power.

The large optima battery weighs 38 lbs and is about the same size as a group 24 marine battery which weighs 40+ lbs. The optima is rated at 50 Ampere Hours while most grp 24 batts are rated at 60-75. The optima has a blue top, the others have a blue label. Optima retails at 160 bucks, the others are about half of that. Neither battery offers a specification of how many charge-discharge cycles they will last. Optimas are cute, but are they worth the extra 60-80 bucks??? My fresh water boat is electric powered. A trolling motor with a digital or continuosly variable throttle will increase your run time 2-3 times what you get with a 5 speed unit, and that is worth a lot of batterys. I got more for my buck (and less weight) buying the better motor. I suggest you go with the standard battery.

I use a MK Endura for primary power and have been annoyed by the turning tension adjustment moaning when turning the motor. Tried Armor-all, oil and wax, but the moans always returned. Then I tried putting 2 layers of teflon tape, the kind plunbers use on pipe threads, on the shaft under the tension adjustment collar. Been turning smooth and quiet ever since and my boat is again stealthy. :

It will make a big difference if you use a 12V or 24V motor. Most 12V motors will draw about 1 amp per pound of thrust. So your 55 lb thrust motor will draw over 50 amps at full throttle and the boat tied to a dock or stuck in weeds. That will surely blow the breaker. A 24 volt motor will draw half as much (about 27 amps) and drop less voltage across the boat wiring. But you have to carry and charge another battery. Tough choice. There are two types of breakers available. One is a manual reset, where you push a button on the breaker to reset it. The other is an auto reset that will reset after the internal element cools off. The coast guard recommends a manual reset. If you plan to use the motor for trolling or lots of slow running, consider getting one with a continuously variable throttle (a Maximizer or Digital throttle). It will draw much less than half of the battery power at 1/4 throttle than the same motor with the 5 speed forward and 3 speed reverse throttle scheme. The cost diff is about 200 bucks, but the added run time may be worth it.

Sounds like your trailer and truck grounds are not connected. The truck black is connected to truck chassis, and you have connected the trailer white to the trailer chassis. I assume you have the trailer hitched to the truck during these tests, and it sounds like the ground is not being caried thru the hitch. Try connecting the truck black to the trailer white and see if your problem doesn't clear up.

The idea that batteries have "memories" seemed to originate with Ni-Cad batterys. It was common for the nicad folks to discharge their batterys to "equalize them" that is to bring all of the batterys in a string to the same state of discharge. Then when the striing was re-charged, all would be at maxumum capacity and there fore the string would provide maximim power. Of course you do not use ni-cads with your trolling motor. Folks using flooded lead-acid batterys used a different approach. In order to "equalize " their batterys, or rather all of the cells in their battery, they overcharged them at a safe rate. This brings all of the cells up to the same voltage, and provides the user with the maximum capacity the battery is capable of delivering. Completely discharging a deep cycle lead- acid battery is sternly discouraged by the lead-acid battery manufacturers. Deep discharge batterys should not be discharged below a 20% state of charge, and the cranking batterys should not be discharged below 80% state of charge. Doing so will dramatically shorten their life. New battery technology now on the horizon promises batterys that can be discharged to very low levels for a thousand or more cycles. Both Lithium and nano-carbon lead batterys show consideral promise. However our wallets will take a significant beating for the priviledge of owning one. The last quote I got from a chinese firm was for $2200 dollards for a single 100 AH 12 v lithium battery. Of course you can get them at a discount if you need 1000s of them. So for now we are still stuck with 90 year old technology, and I think it would be a good idea to pay attention to the manufacturers warnings about depth of discharge.

Sounds like the motor is flooding after you have warmed it up and shut it down to fish. One possibility is the float valve in the carb has some crud under it allowing the bowl to fill too high. Accumulating crud will aggrivate the problem. One easy cure I have used is to drain the carb, there is usually a drain screw or nut to do this. Remove the fuel inlet hose (or pipe) and squirt some carb cleaner into the fuel inlet port. Hose it down thoroughly. Then with the drain still open, replace the fuel inlet hose and pump fuel into the carb to flush out any debris. Close up the drain screw and dry things out before starting the motor. Be sure to check out your fuel tank to insure it is clean. And you might install an in-line fuel filter if your motor is not equipped with one. I use a kicker motor on my salt water boat for trolling and boat control while fishing kelp beds. I have found the quick connect fuel connection to the motor will allow a small ammount of saltwater to get into the fuel line, just a few drops, and this ends up in the carb. The salt will plug up the idle jet in the carb and aslo cause the flooding you have experienced. A coupleof years ago I removed the quick connect fitting and plummed in the fuel line to the motor. No problems since.

I'm out on the west coast and fish fresh water from an electric powered home built kayak. The motor is 1/2 hp (MK40) and easily removable. Oregon and CAlif require that any powered boat must have a Hull Identification Number (HIN) on the stern, and state registration numbers on the bow. It is a bit of a hassle to get the paperwork done here but after one time around it is just a 2 year renewal deal. I'm sure Texas is not as tight as these folks, but keep in mind that local governmets are hard pressed to keep their cash inflow up with their spending, and you don't want to become part of their solution to the problem..

The significant difference between the endura and max is the way the motor speed is controlled. Both use the same motor, but different speed controls. The Endura switches resistors into the power lead to slow the motor. So at half speed, the resistor selected by the throttle switch is dissipating half the power and the motor is dissipating the other half. On the other hand the MAX motor has an electronic circuit that simply converts the 12Volt power to 6 volt power to reduce the motor speed, and it does this with little power loss. So at half speed the Max will run twice as long as the Endura using the same amount of battery power. If you use your motor a lot at 1/3 speed, the Max will reduce the battery power used even further, and that is where the 5x power power savings is most likely to happen. But at full throttle both motors use the same amount of power and the Max has no advantage. So if you do a lot of troling or drifting along casting to the fish, the Max will get you a lot more fishing time on a battery. If you spend most of your time at above half throttle, you will not see much difference.

Well I'm a little confused. Your friend took a screw out of the carb, and squirted some carb cleaner into the carb some where, and dirt came out from somewhere. Then it reved like a race boat in neutral. But when you returned to the river you had no power. I will assume the screw was at the bottom of the float bowl and he squirted the cleaner into the float bowl (from below), and dirt came out of the float bowl. If it is a 85 hp motor you probably have 3 carbs and 3 float bowls and each would have received the same treatment. Since your compression numbers look good, the problem seems to be either ignition or fuel to the motor. An inexpensive step is to replace the spark plugs. Then make sure the fuel delivery to motor is good. The motor probably has a fuel filter, see that it is clear. It also has a fuel pump, check that the fuel line to the carbs is providing lots of fuel, at least a pint every 2 minutes at 5000 rpm. It is possible that since dirt was flushed out of the carbs, that one or more high speed jets in the carbs are partially clogged and will have to be cleared. If you are not mechanically talented, you will probably need help. Good luck. :-/

The Circuit breaker can save you a motor if you were to hit a rock or ground the prop at full throttle. When the prop stops turning, the amperage to you motor can rapidly exceed 100 amps, twice what it is rated for. It doesn't take long to fry the brushes in the motor. You should use a type 1 breaker. It is a fast acting/manual reset breaker. An auto resetting breaker is a bad idea and not recommended by MK or the coast guard. You should be able to find an automotive C/B for much less than 20 bucks. Just keep it in a dry place. These breakers have a little button on them used to reset a tripped breaker.

That sounds like a fun project. The larger motors have a mechanical interface to attatch a remote throttle control. I don't think the 7.5,s will have that, especially if it is a 60s motor. If you look at the throttle on the motor you will see that not only do you have to open the butterfly valve on the carb, you also have to rotate the magneto plate to advance the spark. The tiller handle probably does that with a geared interface. Most motors have a cam on the magneto plate to open the butterfly in the carb. So it comes down to doing the same job the tiller handle does, rotate the mag plate. You can use a cable style steering, where a tiller or steering bar is mounted on the back of the motor. It just bolts across the back of the motor and provides attatchment points for your steering cables. If the left cable is pulled the motor turns left, and so also with the right cable. The cables are routed up to a double pully on the steering wheel and the left cable is wound one direction on the pully (say CW) and the right is wound the other way-CCW. Turning the wheel left pulls on the left cable and lets out some of the right cable. So the motor attatchments are part of a continuous loop of the steering cable. Most boats now use a cable and sheath set up like the throttle cable on a motorcycle, but much bigger. The wheel turns a grear that pushes and pulls the cable in/out of the sheath. At the transom you bolt the sheath to the transom and connect the inner cable (now a rod) to the front of the motor, and you got steering. You might be able to find a used one off an older boat. You will need some kind of a station to mount the steering wheel or remote tiller, and a throttle. It might be helpful to also mount a kill switch as well and connect it to the existing kill button wire and ground on the motor. So then if you have a sweety that can crank up the motor when you want to move, you have it all covered. The fun part is the solving the problem in you own way. Just take your time and enjoy the experience.

Wow a 66 Johnson, you don't see many of them now. I remember it as being a little 2 cylinder 2 stroke motor. So you mix oil with the gass at a mixture of 16 or 32 to one. 1/2 pint to a gallon of gass. The low speed jets on the carbs are often air adjustments, and as you turn it CW it will make the mixture richer. The high speed adjustment is fuel metering and as you turn it CW the mixture will get leaner. It takes a little practice to get these adjusted just right. If the gas/oil mix is correct the motor will smoke at all speeds. The oil in the gas is burned with the gas, and hence the blue smoke. Use 2 stroke oil and it will be less noticible. Johnson used to put a slow speed adjustment, that basically set the idle speed, and made no changes in the mixture. But this was usually a knob on the front of the motor. So if it requires a screwdriver it is probably a lean/rich adjustment. Have fun with your motor....