Trolling motor

[Guest]

I have a little 12 foot little fishing inflateable that i want to put a little trolling motor on the transon. My boat is about 100 pounds. I was wondering about how much thrust i would need to make it go a decint speed. Also do trolling motors come with batries and chargers and if not how much are they. Also does a motor have to be 12v to run on 12v or do they just run on a 12v, 24v, or 36v.

[DGS]

How much do you want to spend and what will you use this for? If, you are not planning on long-lining crank baits all day, then read on.

I put a transom mount motor (minkota, 12V, 36LB) on my 14' deep&wide lund and it was well matched. I figure the boat weighed about 1000lb fully loaded.

My advice: For your boat, set your sights on a 30lb thrust, 12V trolling motor. Any thing bigger is overkill. These are easy to find in the used ads because many people buy them for bigger boats and find they are undersized. You'll also need to purchase a 12v deep cycle marine battery. Fleet Farm sells them for around $50. Lastly, you need a low-amp charger (trickle charger) to recharge & maintain your battery. You don't want to recharge with more than 2amps. You can find these low amp chargers for cheap (under $30). The chargers get expensive when you have multiple ranging (2amp, 10amp, 70amp...).

To answer your question about voltage - yes, a 12v motor needs 12v of power, a 24v motor needs 24v and so on.

[Guest]

thank you DGS that was a big help to me!!!

[united jigsticker]

DGS has some great advice.

A 27-34# thrust Minn-Kota is available for around $80-$110 respectively.

A variable 2/6 amp charger I have also seen available for around $20.

Like DGS has stated, you want to charge deep cycle batteries slowly, otherwise heat will build up, they won't take a full charge, and the life of the battery will be shortened consequently .

A 115 amp hour battery is probably suited best for you, and will give you plenty of hours of use with such a light rig and smaller size trolling motor.

Good luck and good fishing

[icehousebob]

Every fall, I use a 27lb thrust Minnekota on a 12ft. aluminum that I converted to a duck boat. With two men, a dog, and three or four dozen decoys, the motor moves it about the same speed as I could row it. But its lots easier. For the boat you described, you probably don't want to go more than 30lb thrust, because any bigger and you'll end up with the longer shaft. The 30lb has a 30 inch shaft and the bigger ones have 36 or longer, which would get rather clumsy in a small boat. Good luck.