Trolling motor upgrade

[jethro]

I want to upgrade my 2006 Minn Kota PowerDrive to something with spot lock and i-pilot capabilities. Want to talk it out a bit and see if anyone has any advice. I'm a coldwater fisherman that tolls for salmon and trout. I have some specific questions too, of course.

My boat is big, but only set up for 2 trolling batteries at the moment. It's easily a 4000 lb boat loaded with gear and people. How do you figure out the size of these things? Is it kinda like buying a main motor.. just buy as big as you can afford? I had someone that I respect their opinion tell me that I should get a 36v for the run time. If I have to find room for a 3rd battery I will, but how am I sure a 24v won't be fine? Just wondering how they size these things (both my boats came with trolling motors already installed, so I have never bought one).

I'm going to have to get an on board charger for these new batteries because right now all I have to recharge is a simple, 1 bank charger. In the case of the 36v motor, are the batteries wired in parallel or series? Do I use a single bank charger or is it 3 separate banks, one for each battery?

Does anyone consider it important to have it linked to my head unit? I mean it sounds nice, but would anyone consider it necessary? I would have to get a new graph if that is the case, which I guess I could do down the road. I'm just curious if anyone has that capability and considers it important. With the amount I am going to have to spend here on this setup, adding another grand for a new graph is small in the scale of things.

I am 95% a fresh water fisherman, but the boat is the Sylvan in my sig below. It has a 150 Mercury Saltwater edition motor and it's certainly a boat capable of being out on the salt. Should I just pony up the extra for a trolling motor made for saltwater use?

I am buying this trolling motor specifically because it's apparently the best way to add autopilot to your boat for trolling purposes. The Great Lakes guys use a kicker locked in place to push and use the i-pilot to adjust course and speed which would be amazing for me. I can fish alone in the wind much more effectively.

What haven't I thought of? I don't fish salt much at all, but mostly because I don't know how. If I get involved with it more at some point, I don't want to have short changed myself on this upgrade.

 

[ppine]

Jethro,
Your post is logical.
I just added a gas powered kicker motor. It gives me great confidence I can always get home. It is a manual start 8 hp and works good for trolling. It will run a long way on a tank. For some trips like Lake Powell which are huge with limited gas facilities, it is a great comfort to have the extra engine that can go a long way on little fuel.

I have never liked the idea of depending on a trolling motor which can use up the batteries.

 

[Wallyc]

I have run a Powerdrive for a long time! I recently stepped up to a terrova . A much nicer motor for sure. I also ran the 1st gen of I pilot. It was a game changer for me. ( I know cliché ) but it was far from perfect but it was ok, better than being chained to the pedal. With all that said when I bought my terrova last year with the new I pilot version , non link it is head and shoulders above the old version .
Link or no link only you know what you need . Me I’ll stick with the regular one . It does everything I need it to do. With a boat as heavy as yours I would run the biggest you can 36 volts . I would rather have a little to much than not enough. I Went from a Powerdrive v2 55lb 12 volt to a terrova 80lb 24 volt. My boat with all my gear and me and a coangler are about 1200 lbs at the most . The 80 pulls just fine I think a 24 would work until you hit wind and or current. That’s where I think you’ll have problems with a 24 volt:

 

[jethro]

Well, it's done now. 112v Ulterra with I-pilot Link GPS, 4 bank digital charger and a Helix 10 Chirp Mega SI with GPS. 3 x group 29 Interstate Deep cycle batteries.

That was an expensive outing :shock:

Now hopefully Johnson Outdoors can get it all to me by April as it's all on backorder :roll:

 

[LDUBS]

How does this work? You running with your kicker and the I-pilot uses the trolling motor to maintain a course?

 

[jethro]

How does this work? You running with your kicker and the I-pilot uses the trolling motor to maintain a course?

Correct. Just lock the gas kicker in the middle and have it provide most of the push, and the electric motor will autopilot. I can record a route and copy it, or what I will likely use the most, contour tracking. I can pick a certain depth contour line and follow it left or right. I can also offset from that contour line. So I could say choose the 30 foot contour line and off set from that 20 feet. It will be great when I am fishing alone. Also looking forward to spot lock.

I could have bought a really nice runabout for what I paid for all this equipment, but you only live once!

 

[LDUBS]

How does this work? You running with your kicker and the I-pilot uses the trolling motor to maintain a course?

Correct. Just lock the gas kicker in the middle and have it provide most of the push, and the electric motor will autopilot. I can record a route and copy it, or what I will likely use the most, contour tracking. I can pick a certain depth contour line and follow it left or right. I can also offset from that contour line. So I could say choose the 30 foot contour line and off set from that 20 feet. It will be great when I am fishing alone. Also looking forward to spot lock.

I could have bought a really nice runabout for what I paid for all this equipment, but you only live once!

WOW, this would be huge (HUGE!!!).

I can already visualize the tracks I would want at my favorite lakes.

 

[bcbouy]

look into the minnkota alternator charger.i installed a single bank to charge my 2 group 31 agm deep cycles and used my electric trolling motor for 4 solid weeks on my aug. fishing/camping/exploring trip and never had to plug in once.

 

[jethro]

look into the minnkota alternator charger.i installed a single bank to charge my 2 group 31 agm deep cycles and used my electric trolling motor for 4 solid weeks on my aug. fishing/camping/exploring trip and never had to plug in once.

You know, I was wondering about that, glad to hear it worked so well! Going to add this to the workflow. I am going to be super busy this spring with all this stuff to install and doing a whole new vinyl floor.

@bcbouy, do you have the alternator charger rigged to the main or a kicker or can it be both? If the kicker, what kicker is it and how much running of the motor were you doing during that 4 weeks? And finally, where are the details of this epic 4 week camping trip? That's amazing, dream come true. I'm too busy working and paying for all these dumb toys of mine to take 4 weeks off but maybe someday..

The only other wishlist item are electric riggers. Anyone want to buy two complete Penn 620 riggers with swivel and gimbal mounts to force my hand? Lol!

 

[bcbouy]

mine runs off the main motor.it automatically charges the starter/aux battery and reverts to the trolling motor bank when the starter battery is at full charge.it was worth every penny.i installed a volt gauge to the t/m bank and ran the main motor whenever i dropped below 60% only because we were out in the middle of nowhere most of the time and the only access to power was the trucks 1000 watt inverter or the portable solar charger.the alternator charger requires a minimum amp output.i can't remember the actual amount but it is somewhere between 10 and 12 amps continuous.my etec cranks out something like 18.our trip started at the 49th parallel right at the canada/us border and we headed north towards the yukon/northwest territories and stopped wherever the fishing looked good,all waaay off grid.the forestfires were epic this last summer so we pinballed all over the place.we totalled almost 1500 miles and found some fantastic spots to chill.we do a month long trip every summer.

 

[thedude]

OP congrats on what sounds like an outstanding upgrade. Keep us posted.

Most times I'd rather have a cheap rifle and an expensive scope.

Did you mean 112 lb or volt? I am counting how many batteries you may need....[emoji3]

 

[Wallyc]

FYI. When you run power for your helix make sure you run 10 gauge marine wire straight to the battery with the proper fuse. Helix don’t like voltage drop . Ask me how I know. Lol

 

[LDUBS]

"The only other wishlist item are electric riggers. Anyone want to buy two complete Penn 620 riggers with swivel and gimbal mounts to force my hand? Lol"

I upgraded from manual to Scotty 1106 electric riggers. I would say the upgrade is up there among the best moves I've made. But if I had to go back to manual ones, I would jump on the Penn riggers. I had them years ago and liked them a lot. I like them over the manual Scotty's I had more recently.

 

[eshaw]

With the down riggers, are they used for trolling deep water lakes or? I've never seen them, let alone used them. I haven't seen them used around here either.

 

[LDUBS]

With the down riggers, are they used for trolling deep water lakes or? I've never seen them, let alone used them. I haven't seen them used around here either.

Used for trolling, down riggers allow you set set your lure at a specific depth you want with a fair amount of precision. Some can be linked with a fishfinder to maintain a certain distance from the bottom. When a fish takes the lure, your line releases from the down rigger weight so you are fighting the fish without any of the stuff you might otherwise use to get a lure deeper (extra weights, diver boards, lead core, etc).

I troll for trout (and Kokanee if they ever bounce back to my lake). I use the riggers to run lures anywhere from the top to 60' depending on the time of year and where the fish are hanging in the water column.

I would guess they are used most in lakes but also in the ocean/bays (salmon). I think they could be used in rivers for salmon runs, stripers, or perhaps steelhead, but again don't really know as I don't fish rivers and don't know much about the techniques used there.

 

[eshaw]

Jethro, I assume you already have the NMEA 2000 system to integrate the fish finder and trolling motor.

LDOUBS, thanks for the explanation.

 

[jethro]

Jethro, I assume you already have the NMEA 2000 system to integrate the fish finder and trolling motor.

LDOUBS, thanks for the explanation.

The trolling motor and fish finder link up by bluetooth. They are both Johnson Outdoors products and are designed to work with each other.

Did you mean 112 lb or volt? I am counting how many batteries you may need....[emoji3]

The trolling motor is 112 lbs of thrust and is 36 volts. Just the trolling motor will use 3 big, deep cycle batteries. Then the main battery. Big boat just keeps getting heavier!

 

[eshaw]

I hope it works well for you. My blue tooth will disconnect sometimes out of the blue, no pun intended. It's also subject to interference and needs re-pairing once in a while. Just bare in mind that a dedicated system isn't subject to interference like blue tooth because the cabling is shielded against interference. I'll be curious to know how it works out for you.

 

[jethro]

I hope it works well for you. My blue tooth will disconnect sometimes out of the blue, no pun intended. It's also subject to interference and needs re-pairing once in a while. Just bare in mind that a dedicated system isn't subject to interference like blue tooth because the cabling is shielded against interference. I'll be curious to know how it works out for you.

What other options are there, though? For electric motors with GPS integration, Minn Kota pretty much has the market.

 

[eshaw]

I'm pretty sure that Minnkota could use a NMEA system with a fish finder. I'd contact the manufacturers just to know if they are compatible with a NMEA 2000 system, just for general knowledge. That way if you end up having any problems that are blue tooth related you'll have an alternative avenue.