Talking with my coworker who bow fishes a lot today. He just replaced his trolling motor on his custom aluminum boat he hand built. He offered me to try out and buy from him his 70 pound thrust 24 volt PowerDrive lol. I told him I think that’s a bit much and I don’t wana buy another battery lol.

I always took two batteries, even with one 55. After the first windy day that you have to row back a mile to the ramp, you may, too.

BTW, 70 is NOT too much. You may never need it on max, but if you do, you will be glad.

5 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

I always took two batteries, even with one 55. After the first windy day that you have to row back a mile to the ramp, you may, too.

BTW, 70 is NOT too much. You may never need it on max, but if you do, you will be glad.

lol thank goodness I have paddles. I plan to get a second battery to have as a back up. Even if it is a 50 amp hour. I will talk to him more about it. It’s given him some problems. And he has had to repair it a few times. And it doesn’t have the pedal just the remote. So I may be further ahead just getting a new one

I wouldn’t use another powerdrive if someone gave me one. We had that model on our Crestliner for 15 years and the pedal wore out at least 4 or 5 times. The noise that thing made when it turned made me cringe. It had to scare fish off it was so loud.

Given a powerdrive or an edge, I’m taking the edge every time.

3 minutes ago, gim said:

I wouldn’t use another powerdrive if someone gave me one. We had that model on our Crestliner for 15 years and the pedal wore out at least 4 or 5 times. The noise that thing made when it turned made me cringe. It had to scare fish off it was so loud.

Given a powerdrive or an edge, I’m taking the edge every time.

Thanks for the honest reply! He’s a great guy. And I trust him. But I really

Just don’t want someone else’s problem either lol. No matter how good the deal is. Thank you though because I didn’t know that about them! And per you’re opinion of the pedal height I was out there measuring and looking to see if eventually I can install a recessed pedal Box.

Agreed. The autopilot had a power drive based motor and was remote only. It’s got spot lock so that’s a plus. Gim’s right though about noise on it- high pitched gear motor whine. For your boat, I’d go with the true cable drive and get a new one.

The spare battery is a good idea, but wait until you decide on any electronics for the boat. In the kayak I had a 30 AH for the electronics but I built a wire shunt to connect it to the main battery system in case I ever ran out of battery or had a problem with the main battery. It happened twice and I was grateful because the AP was a barge to paddle.

3 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

Agreed. The autopilot had a power drive based motor and was remote only. It’s got spot lock so that’s a plus. Gim’s right though about noise on it- high pitched gear motor whine. For your boat, I’d go with the true cable drive and get a new one.

The spare battery is a good idea, but wait until you decide on any electronics for the boat. In the kayak I had a 30 AH for the electronics but I built a wire shunt to connect it to the main battery system in case I ever ran out of battery or had a problem with the main battery. It happened twice and I was grateful because the AP was a barge to paddle.

Well that’s settled lol. Edge it is.

that’s an excellent point. It has a very small lowrance $100 unit. I’d like to eventually upgrade to a garmin strike 4 cv. Or maybe something a tad better. I love the idea of wiring them up like that though. I’d hate to have to paddle home

@Joedodge You might not want to put a recess for foot pedal in just yet. I left my loose on the deck to figure out where I wanted it. I went out a couple times, moved here and there, realized I don’t want it mounted or recessed anywhere. I like that I able to move it around and fish off ether side, and work the foot pedal where ever is comfortable for me.

Oh yea…. And thanks @gim I’ll never be able to use my foot pedal without think about Capt. Morgan. Plus the music for Pirates of the Caribbean is playing in my head. Thanks Buddy! 😆 hahaha

6 minutes ago, GRiver said:

@Joedodge You might not want to put a recess for foot pedal in just yet. I left my loose on the deck to figure out where I wanted it. I went out a couple times, moved here and there, realized I don’t want it mounted or recessed anywhere. I like that I able to move it around and fish off ether side, and work the foot pedal where ever is comfortable for me.

Oh yea…. And thanks @gim I’ll never be able to use my foot pedal without think about Capt. Morgan. Plus the music for Pirates of the Caribbean is playing in my head. Thanks Buddy! 😆 hahaha

Oh no I’m Not doing that right away. Just like the option for the future if I hate how tall it is. I plan to do exactly what you said. And see what I’m like. And yeah @gim ruined me as well with that. But thanks to you now it’s pirates of the Caribbean now!

I ran 45 thrust on my bass tracker with two batters wired as 12 volt. It did ok but go with the biggest you can. If you are going to run two batteries for it might as well go bigger and wire in for 24volt. It will be more efficient.

11 hours ago, GRiver said:

@Joedodge You might not want to put a recess for foot pedal in just yet. I left my loose on the deck to figure out where I wanted it. I went out a couple times, moved here and there, realized I don’t want it mounted or recessed anywhere. I like that I able to move it around and fish off ether side, and work the foot pedal where ever is comfortable for me.

Oh yea…. And thanks @gim I’ll never be able to use my foot pedal without think about Capt. Morgan. Plus the music for Pirates of the Caribbean is playing in my head. Thanks Buddy! 😆 hahah

Until I bought my Tracker PT175TXW in 2024 I fished out of my fathers 15’4” fiberglass boat for 30 years. It had a small front deck with a bow mounted trolling motor. For years we had the foot pedal loose and chased it around the deck. There was no room on the deck to recess for it or to even permanently mount it because of the design of the bow, deck, and storage hatch. I found it maddening to not have the foot pedal stay still when I was using it, when I deployed and retracted the motor, and a literal pain in my lower back being on top of the deck.

A few years for I got my boat I got creative and installed YakAttack GearTrak on the deck, and using 3/4” Starboard hdpe and my router made a cradle to lock the foot pedal in. Then the foot pedal could slide side to side to position where ever was comfortable for the operator.

I love the recess tray on my 175, and I’d never want another boat without it again. With it being dead center and bow of the deck being narrow its easy to fish either side and use either foot to control.

12 hours ago, Joedodge said:

But thanks to you now it’s pirates of the Caribbean now!