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Posts: 431
| Anyone using a 6 hp kicker on a 18' aluminum boat? If so any comments good/ bad?
Chris |
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Posts: 2097
| Juhas - 5/9/2013 9:13 PM
Anyone using a 6 hp kicker on a 18' aluminum boat? If so any comments good/ bad?
Chris
Everybody says to get a 9.9. I have a 8 on my 17' aluminum and it does nicely. I would think you would be running the 6 almost WOT to troll 4-5mph. |
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Posts: 3508
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Hiya,
What is the actual boat? If it is an 18 foot tiller fishing boat with bench seats, then a 6hp would be just fine. If it is more of a multi-species boat that can take a 150hp motor or larger, then a 9.9 would be more along the lines of what would be best.
One other aspect of getting a kicker to consider is if your big motor goes down, will the kicker have enough power to get out out of a bad situation (winds and rocks).
Steve
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Posts: 814
| I have a 9.9 yammy on an 18' explorer tiller. Max speed 6mph
Yes it will work but what are you using it for? Trolling? Backup? |
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Posts: 431
| Reason for the kicker is more for helping the bow trolling motor in heavy current or winds and as a backup if the big motor goes down. I like to troll with the big motor since it is a tiller.
Boat is a 1825 pro guide with a 90 4 stk tiller
Edited by Juhas 5/9/2013 8:45 PM
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Posts: 814
| I'd say you'd be fine with the 6 then |
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Posts: 3508
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Hiya,
With that size boat, if you can find a good 8hp, I think that would do well. Weight-wise, it will not be much (if any) different as many are the same displacement. A good yamaha T8 Kicker would do really well. Big ears and low pitch means great thrust, and I believe you can dial down the idle on it as well, which means you can really adjust it to your needs for that little extra when in the windy stuff.
I've done the same thing with my 4 stroke Johnson 8hp for working in wind... Amazing how you can move along nicely without wearing out a battery when working into the wind. I ended up buying a solas 4 blade high thrust prop to get a little better performance, but it does the job. And...if the big motor goes down, I know my 8 has enough to get me off the lake in a pinch.
Even better yet running 4 stroke, you can get yourself a fuel/water separator that has multiple outlets on it, letting you run both motors off of your on-board tank.
Steve |
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6 Hp Kicker