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| On my tuffy I have an min- kota auto pilot 50lbs. It sucks up too much juice. Any advice on brands, lbs, and shafts?  |
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| get the biggest and longest shaft you can afford and definately a 24 volt.
I suggest the Minn Kota Terrova, 80 pound with 60 inch shaft |
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | I agree with "Guest." If a 55 lb motor will move your boat OK, get an 80 lb motor. You don't need 100 lbs, but 80 will do it with ease. As for shaft length, it depends on the water you're fishing. Fishing Mille Lacs or LSC where you'll be in decent, heavy chop on a regular basis, get the 60". If you're fishing smaller water that won't blow up as often, you can do the 54"
I'm a MinnKota guy, and like the Terrova because of the Co-Pilot feature. I've got an 80 lb, 60" motor on my 20' Ranger. I could've justified a 101 lb motor, but I do more drifting open flats than I do following structure (very little structure here on LSC) so the 24v actually lasts me two or three days on a charge! And the 80 lb thrust moves the boat with ease at almost 3 mph in chop.
Edited by esoxfly 12/4/2008 9:22 AM
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Posts: 433
Location: Cedarburg, Wisconsin | I too like the 80# Minn Kota Terrova. Put one on my 19' Tuffy and it works great. I went with the 54" shaft because the Tuffy sits lower in the water than my old deep V Alumacraft and I find even with the 54" shaft often it is still sticking so far out of the water it is a pain to avoid with my rod on a boatside presentation. I sure don't need to have the motor all the way down in anything I've been in yet, but I'm sure there will come a time I need it all. I'm not a big fan of lowering the motor any more than it has to be down as it is too easy to run it into rocks and wood in the water I usually fish. |
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Posts: 720
| Another vote for the 80lbs Terrova. |
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Posts: 5874
| musky hunter - 12/2/2008 8:01 PM
On my tuffy I have an min- kota auto pilot 50lbs. It sucks up too much juice. Any advice on brands, lbs, and shafts? :-)
That is a 12volt motor, right? I think 50 is probably OK for power, but you need more time on the battery. You can accomplish this by running two batteries in parallel. This will nearly triple your run time, and save the expense of a new motor. |
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| Great idea Shep!!! Thanks for all your advice. |
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Posts: 462
Location: Antioch, IL | Shep is a wise man. I'm running a minn kota PD55 12V on a 17ft. fiberglass boat. Pulled the boat just fine in moderate to heavy chop, but would juice the battery in no time if I stayed out in the heavy stuff. After looking at going to a 24V with more #'s I deicided to run two 12V in parallel (since an extra bettery would be part of the overall expense anyway). This has worked out great. Fished for 10-12 hours straight for 10 days straight in all kinds of chop and never read less than 50% charge. (don't have to play the conserve juice game anymore). There is a good post on this site showing how to set this up. |
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Posts: 1462
Location: Davenport, IA | I run a 70 lb pdv2 on my 16.5' bassboat. It is barely enough in heavy current. But, generally it is more than enough. |
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right pounds for a 17ft. fibglass boat [trolling motor]