Hi all-

 

hoping for some advice on the best way to mount a bow mount trolling motor on the terraced front deck of my jon boat.  What would be the most basic, safe way to do this?

 

I'm not experienced in much DYI so please dumb it down for me.  

 

Something like this seems doable to me but are there better alternatives?  Thanks for any insight.

 

 

 

 

That style is pretty much what you need, but I’d use much thicker aluminum plate. Find a local fabricator who can make one for you and weld it to your boat. 

On 4/28/2018 at 4:32 PM, Scott F said:

That style is pretty much what you need, but I’d use much thicker aluminum plate. Find a local fabricator who can make one for you and weld it to your boat. 

I'm with @ScottF on this with regard to going to heavier aluminum...I'd also have some kind of sides boxed in on whatever I fabricated...that set-up looks like it could flex forward and back a bit, and might not hold up if significant weight hit it from above.

 

Dude needs a new phone, too....

Your other option is to fabricate a deck even with the front that you can mount the TM to.  

Thanks for the suggestions all.  I like @ScottF suggestion of bringing it to a fabricator to have a heavier duty mount welded.  For the sake of simplicity and not giving my newb self the chance to mess things up by trying to create a deck, that idea really appeals to me.  I'll bring the boat in to a local welding shop and have them take a look at the boat and at this pic.4

 

Question about the dimensions:

 

Are all trolling motor mounts essentially the same size?   I want to avoid a siutation where I'm limited to what trollign motors I can mount due to the mount being too small.  What would be a good all around size for a fabricated mount like that?

No, not all mounting brackets are the same.  Not between manufacturers and not even in the same manufacturers line all the time.  You are going to have to pick out your choice of TM and mount first.  Otherwise just have it made long enough and wide enough to fit all of them.  It's the hole patterns that don't line up.  

I'm looking at the Minn Kota PowerDrive bow mount trolling motor and using this quick mount to mount it:

 

https://minnkotamotors.johnsonoutdoors.com/accessories/trolling-motor/quick-release-bracket-mka-16-03

 

If I bring that quick mount, along with the boat, to the fabricator, would that be enough for them to be able to plan out the dimensions of the mount I'd be asking them to create?  Or would it be safer to actually have the whole motor?

 

For convenience (and money's) sake, it would be best if I could just bring in that quick mount and have them design the mount off of that.  Thank you all for your help once again.

I use the same quick mount bracket. You would need to bring the entire motor. You have to line up where the shaft goes over the edge. The edge of the bracket does not line up with the front edge of the motor. The bottom part that mounts on the boat is 3.5-4 inches from the edge on my boats.

Thanks @Scott F- glad I asked.

Thanks for your guys input. This is what I eventually had done.. @Scott F thx. 

Looks like that'll work.

How much did that cost for the install with parts? I was looking to do something similar.