Hey folks,

The "nused" Xpress H51 I brought home today has a Motorguide 30pd bow mounted trolling motor on it.  I've got my Motorguide 54pd transom mounted motor (both 12v) sitting in the garage.

My question is this:

Could I (even theoretically) change the heads/internals on these two motors such that I could get the benefit of the 54 pound motor but use the bow mounted characteristics of the one on the new boat?  Is it extremely complicated?  What would I have to change in order to achieve this?

Just curious...new 54 pound bow mounted hardware can be a little expensive.  (Even though I do want one with a transducer built in...those are sweet!)

Thanks in advance!

-JC

Only one way to find out, right?

The first thig I would do is check the part descriptions of both motors.  You may find they are the same, and the difference in thrust is by electrical design, rather than sheer motor size.  It shouldnt be all that hard to change, as there are only 3 leads going the motor, but the amp draws and other characteristics maybe alot different.  

My guess is no since the windings in the motor determine the power. Why not shoot an email to Motorguide and ask them?

Are they both hand control or is the bow mount foot contorl?  If the bow mount is foot control, you are going to run into wire quage issues, none of the wiring in the foot contol is going to be large enough to handle the current the bigger motors draws.  If they are both hand control you could probably do it without much trouble.  The heads would have to come off and rotated 180 degrees but if the bow mount is the old type 15 mount without the door for removing the motor from the mount, the heads would have to come off anyway.  

Thanks for the replies.

The 30lb is foot control, the 54 is hand control.

I guess I'll take one apart and have a look at it this afternoon.  I was hoping someone had attempted to tackle it.  Does Motorguide publish a parts guide for their motors?  If there's a schematic it'd make figuring this out much easier.  

Thanks again.

JC

Didn't work...the heads were different on the motors and I didn't want to take a chance on screwing up one of the shafts.

Ah well.