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Posts: 5874
| I'm a backtroller from the past, and I like to steer and control the kicker with my left arm, sitting facing forward. Until I bought my Lund in 02, I had tillers, and this is what I got used to for twenty -five plus years. My sonar was in back by me on those boats. My only other wheel boat was an 83 Lund Mr Pike, and that had a Lowrance flasher on the console, and was easy to see in back. They didn't have kickers back then, so a transom mount TM is what we used to back troll. Mounted on the port side, it allowed me to control it with my left hand.
On my 02 Lund, I mounted the kicker on the port side, and found that to be ideal for me. If I had to turn hard to starboard, and I didn't lift the handle to clear the gunnel, I would rap my knuckels between the gunnel and the handle. I learned to raise the handle as I turned. Never hit a stump and hand the feedback turn the tiller for me. Lucky I guess. I also did most of my forward trolling with a tie bar to the main motor, and a trollmaster. I did not see a need for the tiller handle extension on that boat.
My new Tuffy 1890 has the kicker mounted on the starboard side. Was told I needed it there due to the pad, and the torque of the big motor. It would lean too much if mounted on the port side. It's taken some getting used to controlling with the right arm, but I think after two years, I am getting it down. The tiller handle no needs to be rised higher to avoid contact with the main motor. I still prefer to use the tie bar when forward trolling. If I do find myself on the tiller handle of my ProKicker, I can easily see my X-11 on the console. I also keep an extension handle on the boat for those time that I need or want to troll using it.
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