powerdrive to tiller steer

[Zum]

Has anyone ever taking a "powerhead?"off of another trolling motor and put it on a powerdrive to make it tiller steer?

I know your wondering why and I have acouple reasons...
(1)-my 50lbs powerdrive needs a new circuit board and maybe even a new foot pedal.$250 spent on an older trolling motor might not be money well spent.
(2)-I do(want to do)more fly fishing,I find that my line is always getting twisted around the curly wire plus the light foot pedal can be a pain also.
(3)-I like the way the powerdrive deploys,(sturdy)I know I could make a new mount but....

Just wondering if you think it would be possible.

 

[nick4203]

so basically what your saying is you want something like this https://img.nauticexpo.com/images_ne/photo-m2/sw82-hb-24-v-21322-274933.jpg

 

[Zum]

Sort of...minnkota and motor guide both make tiller model bow mounts.

What I have found out so far is that using a powerhead with speed coils in the lower unit,would be abit of work but do-able.
I'm now wondering if a variable speed powerhead(like on a traxxis)would work jusr by removing the heads.

 

[Zum]

Well...went and did it.
Bought a new traxxis 45lbs thrust.

Nice little motor,still though wanted to see if it would work with my old powerdrive 50lbs thrust.
It was hard at first to rip apart the old PD,had it for along time.

Not much in the head end...kinda like me.

Little bit more in the bottom end....
The new traxxis on the other hand...


Think this was the point of no return...had to trim the shaft down on the old powerdrive...the wires weren't long enough to hook up.


Anyways,glad I took acouple pictures;easier to put the wires back where they belong.
Here it is going back together and what it now looks like.


Anyways,it works...havn't tried it on the water yet.
I'll see if I like it,I can always put it back the original way.
The old powerdrive has a bigger motor,spinning a bigger prop,plus I like the mount better.
Funny though the newer 45 traxxis has bigger wires then the older 50lbs PD.
Sorry for all the dark pictures....basement on the deep freeze.

 

[sbritt23]

that is awesome i would love to do that to my powerdrive v2 i hate the dang on foot pedal it sometimes gets stuck and wont move. You should do a how too step by step instructions. I would love to do that but i cant see me spending that much money on a traxxis to tear it apart

 

[Zum]

Ya,kinda sucked I had to buy a new TM to tear apart but if you could find a variable speed TM used,it was pretty simple.
Don't get a 5 forward,3 reverse speed one because it would be more complicated...there's speed coils in the motor end.
With the variable you just have to replace the head ends.The powerdrive doesn't have any parts but the traxxis,kinda exploded when I took it apart so watch out for that.
Other than shortening the PD shaft so the wires would just clip to the new connections,it was pretty simple.