Kicker size

[96trigger]

Hi all,

I have a 17 foot fiberglass lund Cherokee. It has a 115 suzuki on that runs great. My question is with my Kicker. I have an older 4 stroke, 10 hp, honda that I use for my kicker. This motor is finnicky, Sometimes it runs great, sometimes it does not. I have cleaned the carbs, and will probably replace the fuel line this year. It actually ran great last weekend. The problem I have is finding the sweet spot. At idle, it pushes me about 1 mph, turn up the throttle, its 2.7 - 3.0 mph. Can't seem to find the sweet 2 mph spot no matter what. I'm debating on selling it. I'm interested in a little 2hp suzuki and wondering if that would be too small for a kicker on my boat. Any suggestions would be great. I thought about turning up the idle a little bit so it idles a little higher to see if that will help, but I haven't done it yet.

[marine_man]

A 2 HP Suzuki seems a bit undersized to me.. especially in any kind of wind.

Is the issue that you can't get the motor dialed into the speed you're after, or that it won't run at the spot it needs to be at to get 2 MPH?

If you can't get it dialed into the speed you want, look into a trollmaster system... that would give you finer control of your engine speed than twisting the grip and it would be a lot more repeatable.

marine_man

[20lbSloughShark]

Being a 4 stroke, it can be a hundred different things, which is why I like 2 strokes. 2 hp would probably be a little small, but it should go 2 mph. I suggest a 6 hp evinrude. I used to have one, it ran great.

[96trigger]

The problem is the twist grip. At idle it runs about 1 mph, at any throttle, it going almost 3 mph. I can't find the sweet spot. I have thought about a troll master, but it is an old honda, 1980's. Not sure if that would fit and if I sold the motor and used the money it would cost to buy the troll master, I could probably get another good 4 stroke. It is really tempermental. The first two years it ran great, last year I had issues, so I cleaned the carb, this year it seems to run fine, but I am still having the speed issue I always had. I fish lake Pepin so I am sometimes fighting wind and current. I suppose there are days that its just going to be tough getting the right speed down under certain conditions. I like the fact that I don't have to worry about mixing gas and that it is hooked up to the main tank.

[96trigger]

How about a 4 horse Suzuki, there is one of those for sale also. How loud do you think that would be?