Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Good afternoon guys,

Just bought myself a 21' Fishing toon and am wanting to put a trolling motor on it. Problem is I would rather not have it dead center hanging between the toons.

Has anybody else had any luck with different placement??

Also, where would be a good starting point as far as thrust?

A little research can probably solve that question.

Let me know guy!
God bless,

Drew

I'll try to answer the last question first. Keep in mind that a pontoon presents a lot of mass to the wind. Where a 55# thrust might be enough for a 16-18' bass or jon boat, it won't do much for your boat in windy conditions. Don't know where you boat or what kind of fishing you're wanting to do, but you might want to talk to others on your lake/river who have similar type boats.
There was a thread on here not too long ago about a trolling motor that fits onto your outboard. I think it was expensive. Don't know where else you would put a trolling motor on a 'toon.
Good luck.

Don't have one on my new pontoon;however, I did have one on the other one I had. I had it. Mounted on the front corner. The bracket I had allowed you to pull it straight up and lock it in place. Was a 24 foot. Toon and the motor was 78 pound trust. Did what I wanted it it do.

This is where I mounted mine, it works well and does not seem to get in the way like I thought it would. I have a 55lb motor so I only needed one battery and it will keep up with less than a 5 mph wind easily. I have wireless remote which is sweet, I can operate anywhere on the boat.

I have a similar unit as above but mounted it just outside the trailer bumper and outside the gate path . works just fine for me there.

Haunestly you are going to find that mounting it on the front will work better than anyplace in the rear. You have better control of toon. I have the Minn Kota 85# thrust terrova mounted on the front of out 21' Fishing barge. It has the remote where I can operate it anywhere on the boat. You will find that with the wind and strong current it will be hard to keep it close to bank areas on the river. Short of that I love it. I can move the boat with 2 people on board at full speed about 3mph, 2.5 up river against the current no wind. I also have the quick disconnect on the troller and if we have company on the boat it is an easy removal process. It is 24v but it lasts for days on a single charge.

Is there a way to mount the trolling motor such that when it is stowed on the boat, the motor stands vertical rather than lying in the boat? I would like to be able to lift the head of the motor out of the water and still have room to mill around the front of the boat.

I would imagine the motor would have a quick release so that at the end of the day I could unscrew a screw and pull the motor off and be on my way.

The pontoons on my Monarch stick out 1 foot past the cockpit with nothing between them. I made an aluminum frame that goes between the pontoons which allowed me to mount the motor across the front instead of into the cockpit. Works pretty sweet.

The new tracker doesn't have this arrangement so I will have to do the standard mount. I will however uses a quick disconnect mounting plate for when I want to get it out of the way for hauling the crew around the lake.

If I ever hit the lottery I'm getting one of these, MinnKota Riptide EM 160 Engine Mounted Trolling Motor (160lbs of Thrust)
plenty of thrust and out of the way. They make a few different models.

The engine mount look like they are a little out of what I want to spend. Then again, when I get the motor I want it will probably be close to that anyway. I just worry that mounting it straight out in front, the mount will get in the way. I do like the wireless remote option. Probably going to be the one I got with.

I appreciate all of your guys input.

I have a 20' pontoon and have a 75# thrust trolling motor which works great in our windy area. I did mount it front center and leave the shaft vertical virtually all the time…I just pull it up out of the water and tighten the height adjustment knob to hold it in place. I also opted for the remote control which on the pontoon really is convenient…I can be anywhere and control it.