trolling motor mounting

[Ridge_89]

we recently purchased a 1995 Bayliner 1850 Capri openbow skiboat with a 180hp I/O motor. i was wondering if you people have and ideas or suggestions on mounting a trolling motor to it. its a fiberglass boat and i dont want ot drill and holes in it. i was thinking maybe you could make some sort of a bracket and clamp it on the side of the boat and but some kind of a rubber pad to protet the fibergalss? how straight would the boat go if you did mount it on the side? also it has access to the inside of the hull via a ski locker and i was thinking maybe i could mount a shoot through hull transducer or would a regular one that you put on the transom work better? which one do you think is better?

[Justfishing]

I dont know of a way to mount a trolling motor without drilling and bolting. They sell similar boats with a fish and ski package. The trolling motor is mounted on a plate allowing the motor to be removed when not needed. You can find quick mount kits from CAbelas or Bass Pro shops

[Surface Tension]

Neptune make a trolling motor thats mounts to your IOs cavitation plate.
You can mount a tru-hull transducer to the inside of your hull. This type of installation gets epoxied in and you'll lose some signal strength. Choose a spot thats parallel to the waters surface.

[Ridge_89]

surface tension, what is neptunes web address?

Ridge

[Surface Tension]

Netune EM54

[musky hunter]

Agreed, you are going to have to drill a hole. Trolling motors have some rather stout twisting moments about their mounting plates. A 70 pound thrust motor, for example, with a 3' shaft, would see 210 foot pounds of torque on the mounting plate. With those kind of forces, you don't want anything flimsey that might come off and leave you're trolling motor on the bottom.

[mnrstrider]

We'll I think mounting the correct way by drilling the couple holes it will take is the best option out there, I understand you postion on not wanting to drill holes in your new boat. You could maybe try to mount a thicker plastic plate up front somewhere and drill into that to mount the motor on the plate then the plate on the boat, which is really similar to how my tranducer is mounted. I have hard time suggestion a glue or clamp system to keep connected and on the boat. A quick disconnect trolling motor plate would be ideal if you could find a way to mount this plate without drilling, so you can take it off if you're out just beating around the lakes or towing tubes or skiers. Then again you have the whole issue of where exactly you are going to keep the battery too...

Personally I just don't think the cavitation plate mount motors would be that great, I wonder how great they work, not to mention I wouldn't expect the control to be as good as a "regular", and steering with the console is kind of a pain in the butt IMO especially with the lack of turning ratious. But I bet does solve the battery problem... Of course I've never used one of the drive mounted trolling motors, and maybe someone here can debunk my questions..

[This message has been edited by mnrstrider (edited 03-13-2004).]

[mthunter]

I also ended up in a bayliner, for now. I spent alot of time looking into trolling motors and ending up with a bow mount instead of the one that mounts on your motor. If you mount one on your motor then you get to sit in, (on top of is more like it) the drivers seat while fishing and dealing with all those **** windows and a sore back from hunching over to steer. With the bow mount and foot pedal control I can fish up front or in the back and avoid all the windows.

I installed mine myself, it took four bolt holes and one 3/4" hole to move the bow light over. But I am fishing window free. As for the battery I wired in a plug up front and put the battery under one of the back seats, lost a little storage space but well worth it in my book.

Just remember that when mounting to a fiberglass boat make sure you are mounting through the plywood backing and not just through the fiberglass. Also those quick release brackets are great for getting the trolling motor out of the way when the kids want to go skiing and tubing.

[This message has been edited by mthunter (edited 03-13-2004).]

[This message has been edited by mthunter (edited 03-13-2004).]

[Surface Tension]

Personally I would go with the bow mount and removable bracket too. I suggested the stern drive mount because the poster wanted to keep the lines of his bow rider clean and drill no holes.