Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Hello - I'm a newbie tooner and have a question about trolling motors.....

Are they useless on a toon due to the wind? Am I better off drifting or anchoring instead of trying to control where i go with a trolling motor?

thanks for any input.

Oh yeah - almost forgot - we have an older 20ft toon.

I don't have one but would think it would depend on the thrust. Have seen some el cheapo's that would not even move a small runabout very well.

doc

"sparetime" Welcome aboard. We used to live in Fenton. We built a house on Pine Lake off of Owens Road. To anwser your question. Lots of guys have trolling motors on their pontoons. It just has to be about the biggest ( Lot's of Thrust) you can buy. I personally wouldn't recommend a trolling motor on Lake Fenton or Silver Lake but on one of the smaller lakes a Trolling motor for Fishing would be the Cats Meow. Most of the Motors are mounted on the front center of the Toon and the front gates are modified so when the motor is folded up it lays flat on the deck under the gate. You must be able to close the gate when underway. One thing you didn't mention is, if you already have an Outboard on your pontoon or are you going to be solely depending on a trolling motor for power. Again Welcome aboard. Pepsi

Chuck

Hi Chuck -

We are on Lake Shannon - which is between Frnton and Hartland. We have a 35hp outboard - the trolling motor would be just for fishing. The lake is about 300 acres and is an all sports lake, we moved here in December but from what I hear it's never real busy.
In your opinion, what is the smallest thrust you would go with? I don't want to go out and drop a thousand bucks for a trolling motor... Heck, that's more than i paid for the boat.

I have a Motor Guide Digital Wireless W55. It doesnt take up much space and is killer for fishing. Its only a 55lb but moves my boat no trouble at all. The remote is the shizat! No cords, foot pedal etc to fool with, sit in the cpn's chair and ease around wherever you want to go. Mine also comes standard with a quick detach base plate, so when not doing any fishing it can slip right off.

Always great if your out and have engine trouble to know you be able to get back to the dock even if it's at 4 mph, you can't use an oar on a toon, so I don't even carry one.

But a lot of the places I go at times, they don't want you swimming out, you will scare the gator's, we were hunting gator's on a farm by Lake Apopka late one night, got to the pump house half way spot for us around the dike, and we saw people there.

Now when I say it's half way around the farm, It takes us 35 minutes to get there riding on the dike, where the weeds we are driving through are higher than the truck, so walking is going to take a while, so seeing anyone there was a surprise.

Their engine died, they didn't have a good oar and was using a flat piece of board to paddle with, one guy said I was just going to get in the water and pull the boat in , we picked up the spot light and showed him 17 big gators that would have helped him pull, the guy sat down.

spurhunter wrote:I have a Motor Guide Digital Wireless W55. It doesnt take up much space and is killer for fishing. Its only a 55lb but moves my boat no trouble at all. The remote is the shizat! No cords, foot pedal etc to fool with, sit in the cpn's chair and ease around wherever you want to go. Mine also comes standard with a quick detach base plate, so when not doing any fishing it can slip right off.

"spurhunter" Watch that "quick detach base plate". We had someone lose a motor in the lake last summer. They forgot to lock it down. I guess.


" sparetime" I know where Lake Shannon is and have been on the lake before. We had some friends that lived on the lake. They had a Pontoon. He was president of the ski club there. Bob Struble. He was ON THE School Board for the City of Flint Public Schools. I went to school with him. He was a little older than me though. By a couple years. There is another one of our members on here that lives on Lake Shannon also.

Back in 1993 we bought a Suncruiser Jamaica 240 with a trolling motor. I think it was either 35 or 40 pounds of thrust with a 12V power supply. Basically useless if there was any kind of wind and here at Lake of the Ozarks it seems to be windy most of the time. Maybe that's only when I'm flapping my gums?
Like the other guys said, get the biggest thrust motor you can afford/will fit on the boat. I'd make sure it was at least 24 VDC and 75# of thrust. I like the remote control idea so you don't have to mess with either a handle or a foot control.

thinking in the50lb range, or at the max you can go on 12 volt. The max 12volt would probably be okay. after that you get into buying and maintaining two batteries along with the starting battery. Seem like there was an equation or ratio for determinng thrust to weight of boat, although as mentioned you would have to go higher with a toon cause when it is perpendicular to the wind you got a sail boat.

bassn386 wrote:Back in 1993 we bought a Suncruiser Jamaica 240 with a trolling motor. I think it was either 35 or 40 pounds of thrust with a 12V power supply. Basically useless if there was any kind of wind and here at Lake of the Ozarks it seems to be windy most of the time. Maybe that's only when I'm flapping my gums?
Like the other guys said, get the biggest thrust motor you can afford/will fit on the boat. I'd make sure it was at least 24 VDC and 75# of thrust. I like the remote control idea so you don't have to mess with either a handle or a foot control.

bass frequency is 26' overall and ive got a minnkota maxum 55lbs on the bow. unless its blowing over 15-20mph shes pretty easy to manage. theres always a good cove out of the wind on LOTO

Thank you everyone for your input....it's a great help.

I think anything 55# is the way to go,

I posted a link in the main forum with some results on mine, I have an 80# on a 20ft toon

-bb

My toon is 28' and my trolling motor has 55#s of thrust.

This weekend with 4 adults and a good breeze it pulled us along just fine.

Not only will I echo that a trolling motor is great as a backup if you find yourself with troubles on the water, but it gives you maneuverability that is not possible any other way I can think of.

have a motorguide with a #54 thrust. I use mine almost every time out and frequent a couple of lakes that have 10hp limits, my motorguide gets me around just fine. Just be sure when you go to get one that you get the long shaft

Spurhunter,Am I glad you said what you said about the w55,I just ordered one for our new toon and was worried that I might have made a mistake. thanks again.