Hi folks,
I have a 16.5’ Royalex Galyan’s Woodsman III (Bell Northstar) and I’m planning to set it up for a trolling motor. I’m thinking a Minnkota 30lb. thrust motor with a WalMart Marine battery.
Question: Are the LLBean wood motor mounts ok? I’ve seen the aluminum mounts somewhere, but they are harder to find (and thus, order).
Any advice and reference on motor mounts that have worked for those of you who have set up a similar canoe? I’ve been tempted to craft my own mount, but I know better - my carpentry projects tend to create more grief than pleasure.
Thanks.
-Dan
expensive but good.
wood ones for electric trolling motors. Aluminum for gas powered.
Old Town has them.
Easy to order and get.
motor mounts
Go to the “fishing from canoe and kayak” forum.
go to second page till you find"canoe motor mount option" dated 3/13/05
You will find 17 answers to your question.
How close are you to Raleigh Dan?
I used to use a motor on my big canoe until I flipped it and it sankt because of the weigh of the motor and the battery. The floatation in the canoe is not enough to float the canoe and all that heavy metal. After a long day we got the thing to shore and got it dried out and rowed it the 4 miles back to camp.
Before that I had found that I could go farther and handle rougher water by just rowing or paddling with two aboard.
Anyway if you are coming near Raleigh I could give you mine because I dont use it anymore. I can fish better without it.
Motor mounts
Thanks for the advice!
I’m in N. VA, so kinda far from Raleigh. That’s a good deal though, and tempting. We’re heading to the Outer Banks (Avon) in August and that would be closer - but too far outta the way to justify time out of our vacation.
That’s kinda scary about the flipping and sinking. My Woodsman III is very stable. I plan to secure the battery amidships or a bit forward to balance weight, even if it takes some extra cable. I only plan to use it for those windy days or for long hauls to those special spots, and paddle from there for tight manuevers.
If I don’t like it, I’ll probably give it to my friend who just bought a small jon-boat.
Get floatation
Get floatation for the battery and motor. Consider that tha battery and mottor are much denser than water. Where and equivalent weight of people are about the same density as water. You need to add air bags or other floatation to the boat to keep the boat afloat. My boat has built in floattion but not enough for a motow and battery.
Try this experiment in warm water. Take yourself and a friend out in the canoe and tip it in shallow water. It sort of floats. Off load your friend and add sand or rocks equivalent to your friends weight. When you tip it it wont float so well.
Now if you can try it with metal weights of only 100# or so. The boat sinks pretty quick!
Do this all in shallow water where you can off load the weight easily and refloat the boat.
I pfd for a 200# man only needs 15 to 25# of bouyancy. I pfd for a 60# Trolling Battery will need about 55# of bouyancy.
battery
this guy i used to work with, said he used a 12 volt battery that you use for a wheelchair;they are smaller and sealed and can be charged over and over like a deep cycle, he said it work good;you may want to check it out;i think he got from interstate battery but not sure .