Team_Dougherty

you will want the motor trimmed as far down as you can get is so any water in it will drain and not freeze.

Yes you can hook up your electronics to just one battery. see diagram below. Just be aware that you can drain the one battery faster.

One end goes into the valve on the cylinder. The other end goes to the lever on the tiller handle.

what kind of speedometer are you using? If you are using a water pressure type it could be way off. Use a GPS. Your RPMs seem to be in the right range. SO you seem to be propped right.

Do you have to rewire? Are your wires damaged? You can just change the lights.

I have also seen where someone will add 5" to the top of the transom where the motor mounts. A lot of jet boaters will do that. Look here

I have only fished from a kayak a few times in the last two years. I have used a friend's ocean kayak something or another when I would go out with him. on Labor Day, I bought my own, an Ocean Kayak Prowler Big Game, I can tell you this thing is rock solid. It is rated to carry 600#. They say you can stand in it. It has flat foot wells. I have not tried it yet. I took it out for the first time the Wednesday after labor day on a local lake. It was windy and the lake was a little choppy. I found my new kayak was able to cut through the chop with out issue, the wind did not turn it while paddling and it was easy to paddle into the wind. I was easily able to keep up with the others in the group of about 30. The last pic give you an idea of the chop. Not much but enough to make it interesting. Here is my new toy

The breaker is to protect the wiring, to keep your boat from catching fire, not the motor. Use a 60 amp breaker if you are using 8 awg wire. The motor will draw what ever current it needs to run. If the motor draws 50 amps on high it will blow your 30 amp breaker all the time.

There is a place that rents boats on a reservoir near me. They use two huge *** 6v batteries. That maybe an option for you as well.

Did the second battery's terminals get hot when used? Are you using wing nuts on the terminals?

lose or dirty connection at the battery.

I used this method. Instead of using screws to mount the plastic to the boat, still makes a hole in the hull, I use double sided take. Even after being in the water for a week straight it is still holding. I figured if humminbird can use 3M VHB tape, http://store.humminbird.com/products/313992/XSO_9_20_T, to mount them to a hull so could I. I just used 3M's website to find the right tape. So far so good.

I purchased some of the 3M VHB tape that humminbird uses to mount this transducer http://store.humminbird.com/products/313992/XSO_9_20_T to a boat. I used it to mount this transducer http://store.humminbird.com/products/314027/XNT_9_20_T to the transom of my aluminum boat. I mounted the transducer to a 1/4" thick piece of plastic using self taping screws. I then used alcohol to clean the boat and the plastic. I then applied the tape to the transducer the peeled off the other side and put it on the transom. The transducer is still firmly in place. It was even in the water for a week straight when I was Canada two weeks ago. After you apply the tape let is sit for 48 hours, per instructions, before putting it under stress.

I took two batteries. one was a 12V 105AH, the other was a 12V 12AH battery. The load was both filaments an 1157 bulb. Both batteries were fully charged. 12.6 volts for the big one and 12.4 for the little one. Terminal voltage of both batteries together was 12.6 volts. I hooked the bulb up to the big battery. The current draw was 2.5 amps. The current draw on just the little battery 2.5 amps. Hooked both batteries in Parallel. Surprise the current draw was 2.5 amps. measured the current coming from the big battery. it was 1.28~1.32 amp. Measured the current from the small battery the current was 1.22~1.26 amps. to me that is the same current from batteries under load. Please feel free to experiment yourself. I could not test the charging at this time.

This is an incorrect assumption but very common. When batteries are in parallel you can't discharge one more than the other because they are at the same voltage = they are CONNECTED TOGETHER. To discharge the small one more than the big one would mean it would have to be at a lower voltage but that can't happen. Same when charging, you can't overcharge the small one without overcharging the big one. If the small one gets to full charge = full voltage, then the big one must be at the same voltage and also fully charged. If you have two batteries in Parallel. One is 50 AH and one is 100 amp hours. Lets say you are drawing 50 amps of current. that is 25 amps from each battery. How long do you think the smaller battery will last? after two hours you have used up the smaller battery. But you will still try to draw 25 amps from it. I am not sure I would want to do that to a battery. Now every time you remove the load the batteries will equalize voltage and the bigger battery may even recharge the little battery. But, you will discharge the bigger battery even more. as for charging the smaller ones voltage will rise faster possibly messing up the charger keeping the bigger battery from getting a full charge. or the bigger battery will keep the voltage lower by draining the little one keeping the voltage artificially low causing the little one to be over charged. from optima http://www.optimabatteries.com/product_support/faqs.php#misc this website says the same http://boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/marine_battery.htm Do what you want I wouldn't do it.

The batteries need to be the capacity. You will over discharge the smaller battery and ruin it.

Interesting. It and the trim gauge to me are pretty much worthless.That being said, the only thing I know to check is the wiring at the gauge and at the sending unit at the tank, broken connection, corrosion, etc................ Pitot speedos are useless as well. you would think that running out of fuel on the water can be much more dangerous than running out of fuel on the road. You would think that someone would come up with a better fuel gauge for boats. I guess the pounding boats take is much more severe than a car. I know those flowscans work pretty well since the fuel actually flows through the sensor.

Any load on a battery will run it down. If that bilge pump runs for the full 8 hours it will "consume" 12AH of power from that battery. If it only runs once in a while I doubt you will have an issue. You will really need to find out what your other devices are "consuming".

With the numbers you posted 40MPH maybe all you get. 100HP is not that much. I have a 40HP on a 16' V bottom and it will go 32 with a light load and a tail wind going downstream. You maybe able to try fine tuning your trim/tilt and motor height. Maybe a stainless steel prop.

http://www.lowrance.com/Support/Tips-and-Tutorials/Sonar-Tutorial/ http://www.lei-extras.com/tips/sonartut/fisharches.asp

How are you measuring your speed? what is the RPM your motor is running at full throttle?

I had the same issue when I put a depth finder on the from of my boat. My bow light has a three wires going to it, all 16 gauge. One is always hot for a little utility light on the bow light. I just tapped into that. Maybe yours is the same.

If you go stainless you will break your prop shaft or other internals before the prop blades. This is much more expensive to fix. I had a comp prop and like above I found it out performed the stock aluminum one of the same size hands down. At some point I will get one for my new motor.

I agree. at 7 amps each battery is getting 3.5 amps. That is barely enough to charge it. I would get another 10 amp charger or a dual bank charger.

I would put in on the trolling motor. Or you can put in on the floor of your canoe. http://store.humminbird.com/products/305932/MHX_XMK