Trolling motor

[mightymite45]

I fish a lot of electric only lakes and was wondering , all being equal ,does two transom trollers push a boat faster than a single motor?And if it does by how much faster? Example:2-55lb thrust vs one 110lb thrust. Is it close or not worth doing?

 

[Subsonic762]

1 lb of thrust for every 50 lbs including people and payload. Then I add 10 more for good measure. A single will be better in my opinion. A propeller is designe around screw speed pitch and rpm.

 

[jethro]

Believe it or not, a second trolling motor of similar or less thrust probably will slow you down. This was my experience when I had my square back canoe. I had two 40lb transom mount trolling motors (one was on my jon boat) and decided to install them both on the canoe for a fun experiment. Turned out the speeds were higher with one at max throttle than both at max throttle. It's all about drag and the screw can only turn so fast.

 

[Shaugh]

It's an interesting physics problem. Once your boat's inertia is overcome the speed you go is set by the speed of the prop and motor. So top speed will remain relatively the same or even slower as stated. The only thing it will do is make you faster to top speed and perhaps more powerful to maneuver.

 

[MrGiggles]

Not necessarily.

Trolling motors aren't propped for speed. You could strap the biggest, baddest one they make on a canoe and still only get 3-5 mph. They are designed for moving heavy boats around quietly.

If you could get a prop with more pitch, you could in theory get more speed as long as the motor had enough power to turn it, but nobody makes them.

As Jethro stated, there are more efficiency losses with two motors as well.

 

[maintenanceguy]

Yup. More horsepower doesn't mean more speed if the prop is set up to only screw through the water at 3mph.

 

[CRS]

I will jump in here about the multiple trolling motors.
I have a 1448 Tracker Grizzly it is a heavy boat but very stable. The reservoir I fish on is electric only so the slow electric motors are my only option except oars. The Grizzly is not made to row, I know this very well. I have 3 80LB thrust motors on it. An Ultera on the bow and 2 80lb transom mounts on the stern. Several things I have read I have found to be true to a certain degree from my first hand experience. The bow mount motor is my fishing motor, I troll for perch, walleye, and striped bass. The Ultera is programable so I can set a nice long route and sit back and fish without the need to pilot the boat. On a still day with just the Ultera I can get 3MPH (info just for reference) . When I am traveling I kick in the two stern motors, my normal travel speed is 4MPH that's both stern motors on 70% and the bow for steering set at 25%. I know that 2 motors actually reduce each others thrust unless I have read if they are turning in opposite directions or are far enough apart. I have not been brave enough to rewind the motor and cannot find a prop made for the motors that is made to run counter to the existing. What I did was mount an aluminum angle across the stern of my boat. This allowed my motors to be set farther apart, it helped. The biggest problem with electric boats is weight, the electric outboards are high voltage, 48 or more they are also amp hungry so multiple large batteries are necessary for all day fishing at the more distant locations. The more batteries the greater the weight, the more weight the more power is necessary. I have not experienced the same max speed that just takes longer to achieve. Just less weight goes faster with the same motor, the kayaks prove this.
All this said the reason I have multiple motors is they will fail a battery will fail. As mentioned the Grizzly is not meant to be paddled or rowed so with multiple motors I have a much better chance of returning to the ramp under power.