Fitting electric motor

[alleycat]

Morning all, ive just bought myself a new hull , its a stessco catcher limited 4.29 and im wanting to fit an electric, im thinking a min kota 55lb would be about right and im after some advice , do I just ring around for a quote to purchase and fit or are they easily fitted by yourself?, thanks in advance.
And just aside that hull is a great estuary boat, so stable and dry..

[toddo1]

Easily fitted mate, but if u buy it they might fit it for free!! I doubt it tho! If you fit it urself just make sure ur mounting bracket is in the right place for motor to drop and not too far back! Simple stuff

[scottar]

Easily fitted apart from fabrication and attachment of a mounting plate unless you can weld alloy in which case it is all easy. If the boat has a bow rail, you may have to cut a section away as well. When you get the plate fabricated one thing to watch out for is trying to get the length as such that none of the bolts for the motor mount end up in a position so close to the gunwale extrusion that you can't get a nut on. Ideally you want the motor in the stowed position to not take up too much room in the cockpit area or to impede access to the bow for people or anchoring.

[Peter4]

They fitted mine for free when I got the bow mount plate welded onto the gunnel...welding cost a bit though! Make sure you get the poly (low profile puck) quick release brackett

[alleycat]

Thanks guys, im in Albany creek so any suggestions on who would do a good job of selling me a leccy and fitting??.

[scottar]

Plenty of places will do the actual bolting on and wire up. Not to many will have fabrication facilities. They will tend to subbie that part out and add a margin for organising it which is fair enough. Some may not wish to get involved with the fabrication side. When I worked in the game we were always hesitant about recommendations in case anything went wrong (once bitten ,twice shy if you know what I mean). If you know someone that you are happy to have do the fabrication work first, it will broaden the choice if you aren't happy to do the rest yourself. I would think that any good marine retailer that is a Minn Kota agent or Motorguide agent, that sells boats and has a workshop will be more than capable of doing the install of the motor. Is the boat painted - if it is there will be paint to patch as well or the mounting plate will need to be bolt on.

[kingcray]

hi mate
i basically have the same boat as you, last year i bought a 54lb leccy for mine and did a bit of hunting around for somebody to weld the bracket / plate, fit it all up etc. It was going to cost me between 400-600 just for the plate welded and the installation.
I ended up picking up a bit of 5mm ally plate from one of my customers cheap and got a mate to weld it on the bow. Just had to chop out part of the bow rail. I drilled the holes and mounted the motor myself. Prob saved me around 300 bucks which easily paid for the 105ah deep cycle battery and bits n pieces to hook it up.
Other than that all i had to do was build a small deck up under my hatch to house the battery so it was out of the weather.
Only problem is i dont have a quick release bracket fitted at the moment, but will be getting one soon.

[rayken1938]

Ensure that they duralac where they drill holes and vacuum the swarf.
Cheer
Ray

[Feral]

I just bolted a bit of 4" x 2" Aluminium box section to my bow, with the base plate of the motor bolted to 2 bits of RHS galv steel then bolting to the box section. (Steel sliding each side of the box) Because I needed to give mine some more angle to get the shaft straight, I used a couple of small bits of galv strap to raise the back about an inch, which in conjunction with the extra 2 inched of height from the box section, it had the added advantage of getting it high enough to clear the coaming when stowed. ( if you want to do something similar just be sure the motor will still go far enough in to the water), Any electrolysis or other issues caused by the galv steel should occur in the box section. You could probably use aluminium angle if you wanted to, I couldn't source any easily (eg none in my scrap pile )

Can post some photos if your interested in how I did it.

[Mike Delisser]

Can I suggest locknuts or locktight on the lecky bolts too as they may vibrate loose. And if possible mount so the shaft is inline with the gunnel when it's up so it takes up less casting platform room, but also just inside the line of the gunnel so it won't get bumped by any trees. And the closer your lecky is to the centre line or keel of your boat when it's down, the less power it will use to do the same job, and the more control you'll have in wind and current.

[alleycat]

Hi kingcray, mine doesn't have the wide gunnels so im thinking it will need the plate welded on, I had a quote from northside marine and I think the motor was 1299 just for motor so that gives me a starting point ..but you know the whole exercise is way dearer than I thought it would be..

[Dan5]

Just fitted up my new 55lb Motorguide xi5 today.......

Mounting plate is 4mm alloy with 2 40mmx6mm flat bar stiffeners welded to the underside to stiffen the plate up (they could have been bolted but welding was easier)

I have the wider gunnel so there was plenty of room to bolt it down but 1 bolt hangs out on the front left corner.

I used the quick release mount for mine aswell which for me meant drilling and countersinking another hole off center as to miss the outer combing.....bit of dicking around but worked out fine.......I chose to do a complete bolt on plate with no welding to the hull so if I wish to keep the troll motor if I decide to sell the boat it will only leave 4 holes to close up.

On the underside I have made fish plates to spread the load out as best as possible which has made it very ridged around the perimeter of the plate after I remove it again to paint it i'll fit some pinchweld to cover the raw edge of the plate.

All in all pretty easy but just a lot of on off again to make sure the hole centers and bolts didn't foul on anything I suppose I'm a bit fussy with that knid of thing but it turned out well with no stuff ups and extra holes ,

In your case with the narrow sides I suspect you will have to get a plate welded internally for you motor mount plate to bolt to....?? I can't really think of away around it theres just not enough room to bolt it on and give it some purchase.

Tommorow the 70ltr tank goes in and i'll start the cast deck fabrication.....fun fun.


Dan

[Dan5]

Hi kingcray, mine doesn't have the wide gunnels so im thinking it will need the plate welded on, I had a quote from northside marine and I think the motor was 1299 just for motor so that gives me a starting point ..but you know the whole exercise is way dearer than I thought it would be..

Shop around mate.....decide on what YOU need/want then chase down a good price........as an indication I got the 55lb 54'' shaft Motor Guide Xi5 with GPS for $1648 and quick release bracket for$99.......I could have had an Ipilot Terrova for $1730 and plate for $100 but chose the Xi5 based on some very good feedback not price.
A 120ah AGM battery was $340 and charger was $229 for a 15A powertech multi stage......nut's bolts were about $15.....some wire and Anderson plugs roughly $50 and I'm yet to get a circuit breaker so don't know how much for that......also battery box was $17........

Depending on which motor you buy it all soon adds up.......Quickly.........but go into it with you wallet open any way you look at it......don't base your decision on motor price alone or you will soon realise it ain't cheap but it will be worth it especially if you want to fish alone sometimes.

Dan