Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Hi all. I must say it’s great summer is finally here and we are all out on the water. I need a little help from everyone to spend my money.

I have an older 23’ Landau that we love. Got it a couple years ago used and it’s been great except for a couple welds cracking this year. I will post on that later. This is about adding a new trolling motor.

The old trolling motor on the toon is on it’s last leg and the wife has given me the green light to get a new one. I have been eyeing the Terrova Minn Kota’s with ipilot for a couple years and I am going to pull the trigger. What I can’t decide is shaft and voltage. The lake we are on is not huge but is a decent size and can get pretty choppy. We can get some real windy days and would be fishing outside of the coves about half the time.

I was thinking 36 volt with a 60 inch shaft. Right now I have 2 batteries with a Bass Pro 2 bank charger. We are in a slip at the marina so I have a power hookup at the slip to charge the batteries. The way I have it now is one battery for the trolling motor and the console with a radio, GPS/fishfinder and everything else. The other is just for the motor. Works out nice if I kill the battery with the trolling motor or radio I can still start the boat and get back home.

I have never had a 36 volt or 24 volt trolling motor and not sure how many batteries and charger I am going to need. Right now the batteries and charger are in the back of the boat in a storage space. If I go with the 36 volt am I going to need 5 batteries? 3 for the trolling motor 1 for radio and accessories and 1 starting battery? Not really sure if I have that kind of room. I am thinking that using the 3 batteries for the trolling motor takes them out of the picture for the console and accessories. I am also not sure about the charger. I figure one bank for each battery but wasn't sure since I don't know how to hook a charger up for a 36 volt setup in addition to 12 volt. Would that be a 4 bank charger? If I need 5 batteries same question.

I have a Garmin GPS now but thinking about a hummingbird next year so it will pair with the new trolling motor. Really confused and trying to come up with a plan. When I pull the boat out of the water to install I want to do this all at once and it not be an all summer in and out of the water project.

In a nutshell
36 volt?
60 inch shaft ?
How many batteries ?
Hook up suggestions ?
How many bank battery charger?

Thanks all for the help. Will post some pics after I get it all figured out and hooked up.

I have a 54 inch shaft Power Drive V2 with I-pilot, and it's way longer than I need on my toon.
As for chargers, one bank per battery. So a 36 volt would need a 3 bank.
Mine is a 24 volt, and I have 2 dedicated batteries and a charger under the front seat for the trolling motor. 2 more batteries and another charger in the back. One battery for starting, and the second runs my radio, fish finder, bait tank, etc.

I have a 54" shaft also and its MORE than long enough, but I do like that the top sticks up high enough were I can see it over the front railing front anywhere in the boat. I only have a 55# (largest 12v) and its OK on my 20', it will pull me along at 2.0-2.5mph and works just fine for moving around bays and such. With a bigger toon I'd opt for an 80# 24v just to avoid jumping to 3 batteries needed for a 36v 101#

The 3 battery thing has me worried too. I want the power but that does not seem like a great trade off. Thanks for the info on the shaft length. Really seems like the general consensus. I have only seen one person say he liked it longer. The swim ladder is next to it in the Bow and having it on the deck that long would be a pain too. So 54" is the longest I want. Anyone else have any ideas? I read in a wiring site I can use one of the batteries in the setup for the accessories so I don't need to dedicate one to each thing.

Here's a shot of my 54" so you can see just how long it really is. In this pic, it's even with the bottom of the log. I usually run it a little deeper than this, but never all the way down.