Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

on an 18ft. What do you have, do you like it? I'm struggling with this 12v or 24. I know bigger better blah blah. I'm thinking the 68lb Minn Kota pontoon motor 24v. Are the 55lb working for you guys?

No wind and the 55 will be fine.
In wind, forget about it unless you get over a 100 pound thruster.

I'm glad I spent more money and got an 80 pound thrust trolling motor.
The remote control is very nice...

I have a 24 ft boat and a 74 lbs.

it will motor us along at 2.5 mph. I've never had it in terrible winds though.

24 v is nice. Draws less current that way. So I think you'll get longer run time.

my 18' get used for bass fishing and crappie fishing. The 12v 55lb wireless is more than i need. i use is on the lowest few speeds almost all of the time, but most of my fishing is done in channels where there isnt much wind. If your using it for a different style fishing you may need more but the 55lb is more than enough for mine.

thnks for the info

I have a 20 ft fairly light toon. 55lb thrust has been OK for me. Two batteries just seems like too much weight and hassle.

I have a 23'er with a 55lb remote controlled TM on one battery, I have no problem fishing in all but the worst winds on the lake and in that kind of wind, really do not need to be fishing anyway. Most of the time, it is around half speed or less. But you will always hear to go as big as you can but the cost of TMs go up as you get more thrust and features. I only thing I would change is to use two batteries vice one, I do run out of juice 4-5 hours in heavy use.

I really like the remote control feature as I can be anywhere on the boat and control what is happening. My unit is the MotorGuide Wireless W55 trolling motor.

Yes ,I was planning on 2 batteries if I go with the 55 so my next concern was weight. I checked the weight for both the 55 and 68 Minn kota pontoon motors and they both said 44 lbs. If that was true it would make more sense to go with the 68. I'm not too worried about the price difference but both motors being 44 lbs as listed on amazon just didn't sound right. Couldn't find the weight on minn kotas web site.

Placement can male a big difference, I had my 55 on the center front of a 24 ft and could get over 3 mph, when I moved it back to the back over the side, I could never get 2 mph.

We have used a 80lb 24V Minnkota on a 22' Pontoon & Deckboat and it works great. I wouldn't want any smaller of a motor, at least for the fishing we do. We have plenty of space so the extra battery isn't an issue.

I have a 55# on mine if I tilt the outboard out of the water It will pull me 2.5mph, enough to make headway into a 20mph head wind. I could go 24v but I use the 2 trolling motor batteries for all the accessories, stereo, lighting and I like being able to charge them off the outboard as mine has a 40amp @ 1000rpm. I definitely recommend a Auto Pilot + Copilot remote no matter what size you choose, I NEVER use the foot pedal anymore.

"I definitely recommend a Auto Pilot + Copilot remote no matter what size you choose, I NEVER use the foot pedal anymore."

I would love to have one of these. But I was pretty excited to get my 74 lbs foot petal one.

I'm sure if I ever get to try one I'll never go back.

Or you could put Mercury troll control on if you have a fuel injected motor it's the best thing I ever did can move Rpm up or down depending on wind conditions I can get down to 2 mph with my 115 on 22 foot Sylvan

I'm gonna use the 15 hp that I took off the fishing boat I sold...I may be able to get it mounted by next week...eventually I'll hook up full control from the console....for the time being though it will serve dual purpose as a kicker, because I'm a little leery of the old (1972) Evinrude. I'm surprised more of you guys don't use gas motors...