I bought a Honda BF2D 2 h.p. for my Old Town discovery canoe. Tried mounting it as far back as my aluminum block bracket would allow, but the motor weighs in at around 30 lbs. and with me in the back the front of the canoe comes up at about a 60 degree angle and torques significantly to the side. Does anyone have any plan for a plywood or other mount that could be mounted further back to allow the motor to hang more to the back of the canoe that could be easily assembled/disassembled at the launch? There has got to be an easier way…
You are sitting in the stern seat and
have the motor sitting as far back as you can get it? If so, you’ve an unbalanced canoe. All the weight is in the stern. If that’s the case, you may want to try one of two things. Either sit in the bow seat and mount the motor as close behind you as you can and still steer comfortably, or get Old Town’s drop-in third seat and place it so you can reach the motor’s tiller, yet have the canoe trimmed better so more of it sits on the water. The seat at some sporting goods stores sells for $59 or so…Gander Mountain is where I most commonly see them.
About hanging the motor farther back.
Doing that will create even more of a weight distribution problem. Another solution to your problem would be to put weight in the bow of the boat. Get two of those collapsible water containers, fill one up and try it. It its not enough to keep the bow down, add or subtract water to the second one to help trim the boat. Or, take someone else with you. Think or your canoe as a balance scale. The more weight you put on one end to the exclusion of weight on the other, the more out of balance it will become. Hang that weight even farther out and you make the situation even worse.
motor mount
Cool, thanks for the advice… Really would like to see others plans or what they have done to their canoe rigs for a motor mount. Does anyone have any pics they could post to show mounting of gas motors? Thanks again…
Not many other choices for a
double ender. Most don’t want to modify in such a way that it hurts the looks or paddling of the canoe. Pretty much, the choice seems to be between a metal or wooden motor mount. I guess one could do like some fishing boats and build a motor well in the center of the boat, cut a hole in the floor…bit drastic for a canoe.
Old Town Discovery
In my small fleet I have an Old Town Discovery Sport. Square stern. Sometimes I use a Honda 5hp on it. If traveling alone I put TWO fifty lb. bags of river stone in the bow. Sounds extreme but it is the only thing that keeps the bow down.
I am assuming you do not have the same model Discovery. If you go to canoegear.com they have a motor mount that is made for the bow of a double ender so that you can sit in the forward paddle seat and steer. It is rated to your hp.
Have fun.
Motor on canoe
I use a 3 hp motor on my discovery 13. to deal with the weight distribution I bought a tiller/throtle extension rig which lets me sit in the middle seat and still operate the motor. You can get one of these at Bass pro or Cabelas etc.
Great big cooler
Right in front. Also, turn the boat around so you’re sitting in the bow seat. That’ll move you a little bit forward.
- Big D
Fill the cooler with beer, that’ll bring
the bow down.
That was implied.
I forget that with a few exceptions, you folks haven’t been on the river with me.
There’s no point in having a cooler if the cooler doesn’t hold nice refreshing BEvERages.
- Big D
I figured that, but others may not
understand the need for cool libation.