Mounting of Electric Motor

[Terry]

On many boats you see a bow mount plate for an electric motor. What if your boat does not have a plate? Would appreciate some feedback please. How do you position the motor? What are the "must do's" and what are the "do not's"??

Edited May 11, 2011 by Terry

[Terry]

Thanks Swordie. I would consider myself reasonably capable and "handy" as you put it. Whilst it is correct that I have not mounted an electric motor before and I am not sure I quite agree with you in regard to asking questions, I was just trying to gauge wether this was a job I could tackle myself or if it was best left to a professional. The great thing about on-line communities like these is that there are many people willing to share their experience and information. I get a certain pleasure and satisfaction if I am able to do something like this myself.

Having said that I have been absent from the site from some time until recently and I wasn't really aware of Huett Marine until early this week. I have already contacted them in regards to some other items, I will probably drop in on Friday and discuss this.

Terry,

Unless you are extremely handy ? and if you were you would not be asking these questions.

Contact Huey @ Huett Marine and he will organise a plate and fitting for you.

I hade my plate made by Gary (Brickman) Seriously Stainless and I was extremely happy with the job done by both our sponsors.

Electric motors are expensive and you dont want you leccy falling off whilst underway or towing.

Regards Swordie

Edited May 12, 2011 by Terry

[jewgaffer]

Hi Terry nice to see a long time member like yourself back and posting on Fishraider again. There has been a lot of water under the bridge and a lot of jewfish passing thru since you were active on the site. Please find attached some photos of my 82LB bowmount electric motor showing the brackets that were designed and made for it by Gary Brickman of Seriously Stainless to save me cutting the bow rail and to allow for locked in permanent mounting. There is a taper down to approx 100mil between my bow rails and my boat being a deep V, a long shaft electric motor provided the necessary 8" - 12" submersion depth for the propellor).

Hope this helps Terry and if you have any questions on mounting to suit your bow rail profile don't hesitate to give me a holla as I certainly did enough research on the subject as it wasn't all that long ago at all that I was in your position myself.

Cheers

jewgaffer

To show you the quality of Gary's design and workmanship, Gary also made up an alloy stand to support the weight of my live bait tank which is screwed into the stern gunnel in a perfect unobtrusive position where there is plenty of room to fish at each side of it.

The right hand side photo in the first row of attachments shows the carpeted box that was made to house my 2 x 120amp deep cycle batteries (box shown during installation and replaces the pedestal for the bow area swivel chair to save space and the swivel chair has since been mounted onto the battery box. The diy work was done by my good friend Geoff aka Geoff on Fishraider who enjoys advising and assisting members with their set ups, modifications & placements etc.

Edited May 12, 2011 by jewgaffer

[Terry]

Thank you for responding. Good to see some custom work. I think my install will be much much easier. It is on a Stacer Proline Angler 399 which has a flat front deck but bow rails on both sides. I have a Minn Kota removable mounting puck/plate already and from what I can deduce I can mount that (and get access underneath) to fit up. It's obvious without a bow thrust plate installed the angle of the motor is going to be similar to that of the bow edge and will put the motor off the front to one side, not so square if you get my point. My question was around that and if there were any known or beginners mistakes that are easily made?

Hi Terry nice to see a long time member like yourself back and posting on Fishraider again. There has been a lot of water under the bridge and a lot of jewfish passing thru since you were active on the site. Please find attached some photos of my 82LB bowmount electric motor and the brackets that were designed and made for it by Gary Brickman of Seriously Stainless to save me cutting the bow rail and to allow for locked in permanent mounting. There is a taper down to approx 100mil between my bow rails and my boat being a deep V, a long shaft electric motor provided the necessary 8" - 12" submersion depth for the propellor) .

To show you the quality of Gary's design and workmanship, Gary also made up an alloy stand to support the weight of my live bait tank which is screwed into the stern gunnel in a perfect unobtrusive position where there is plenty of room to fish at each side of it.

The right hand side photo in the first row of attachments shows the carpeted box that was made to house my 2 x 120amp deep cycle batteries (box shown during installation and replaces the pedestal for the bow area swivel chair to save space and the swivel chair has since been mounted onto the battery box. The diy work was done by my good friend Geoff aka Geoff on Fishraider who enjoys advising and assisting members with their set ups & placements etc.

[JET01]

I fitted an electric motor to my stacer nomad 469 last year just before the october long weekend.

Let me know what area you are in and what sort of boat you have, as i might have a few suggestions for you.

Just remember that if you are going to pay someone to wire up your motor, make sure you supply them with the instructions, do yourself a favour and read them yourself.

The bloke that installed my Watersnake had done "heaps before". I had some issues with the electrics on my boat which turned out to be some lose fuse holders. In the process I noticed that he had not installed an inline fuse that was required. There are a lot of guys in the marine industry that are very average and I find the customer service overall pretty poor. From Sales guys having no idea about their stock, to simple courtesy like calling back when they say they will.

The problem with the good guys ( and there are some good ones ) is that good you might have to wait a few weeks to get your boat in. Trust me, it's going to be worth the wait.

PM me if you have any questions.

[JET01]

I fitted an electric motor to my stacer nomad 469 last year just before the october long weekend.

Let me know what area you are in and what sort of boat you have, as i might have a few suggestions for you.

Just remember that if you are going to pay someone to wire up your motor, make sure you supply them with the instructions, do yourself a favour and read them yourself.

The bloke that installed my Watersnake had done "heaps before". I had some issues with the electrics on my boat which turned out to be some lose fuse holders. In the process I noticed that he had not installed an inline fuse that was required. There are a lot of guys in the marine industry that are very average and I find the customer service overall pretty poor. From Sales guys having no idea about their stock, to simple courtesy like calling back when they say they will.

The problem with the good guys ( and there are some good ones ) is that good you might have to wait a few weeks to get your boat in. Trust me, it's going to be worth the wait.

PM me if you have any questions.

Sorry mate i had to leave my post half way through and in the mean time you'd received a few answers already.

I had bowrails on the nomad both sides of the bowsprit and roller. I didn't want to loose the ability to anchor so i had the rails cut and re-welded. I had a new gunnel rubber installed and it was all painted up. It looks like it was done in the factory! Great job.

It was pricey though and from start to finish cost around $3000 as i didn't do any of it myself.

I went through a fair bit of heartache to get it sorted, but in the end it was worth it.

The Nomad ("Good Gravy") is now a Flatty bashing machine and is a pleasure to fish out of.

[Thunderace]

I've got mine mounted on the curve but have it mounted right on the edge, so this straightens it up a bit, I also have a piece of nylon mounted under the quick release puck, the angle doesn't seem to make a difference but there is a bit of flexing of the aluminium,

I also didn't mount mine right at the nose, so i didn't have to cut the bow rails and also so it fitted in with my windscreen better, and it hasn't seem to make a difference

Like this

not like this

[m_a-wright]

Hi Terry,

With fitting your electric motor i would highly recommend fitting a Minn Kota on board charger. I have fitted the minn kota plug and socket and installed a circuit breaker between the plug and the battery. This way you can keep the battery permanantely connected and isolate at the circuit breaker. I mounted the breaker in a small electrical box and positioned it in one of the front storage compartments. The on board charger certainly takes alot of hassle out of carry seperate chargers around.

[Terry]

Thanks fella's for all your ideas and assistance. Had full day Saturday fitting up the Minn Kota. I isolated it with a 70amp fuse mounted into the battery box and used an Anderson Plug for connection to the unit and for charging. I also moved the fuel tank forward and put in a new fuel line and also fixed the spray issue with the Hummingbird transducer.

I had a quick fish on Sunday in and around Manly/Balmoral and was rewarded with a couple of nice flatties, one went about 65cm and the other approx 55cm. I also caught a couple of good size tailor, all fish taken on soft plastics.

With the Minn Kota I got one with the iPilot. What a seriously good piece of gear that is. Makes fishing one-handed really easy. The spot-lock or electronic anchor is just the dog's bollocks!

[m_a-wright]

Hi Terry,

I have been looking at updating my electric and was looking the i pilots. How does is go with the orientating of the boat with the electronic anchor and what sought of accuracy does it hold on your postion?

[Terry]

Hi Troutman, it is very very good. Holds right on it, only movement is current, wash or wind. What it tends to do is hold the nose on the position, plus or mins a metre at worst. It is a very good piece of tech, as I said it makes fishing one handed much easier. With the bigger flattie yesterday I was very close to a mooring bouy, this held me on the spot until I decided I wanted to reverse out and clear him of the bouy. I then recalled my position and it took me straight back to my mark, all whilst still casting and prospecting. Every now & then if the motor head has gone around the shaft a few times, it thinks about it and does a complete motor head reversal to unwind any coil wrap, I mean, how good is that?

Hi Terry,

I have been looking at updating my electric and was looking the i pilots. How does is go with the orientating of the boat with the electronic anchor and what sought of accuracy does it hold on your postion?

Edited May 30, 2011 by Terry

[m_a-wright]

Thanks Terry,

Sounds excellent. I will tell the mrs you told me to buy it. How did you go with your livewell?

Cheers, Mark.

[mattygong]

Hey Guys

I have a formosa 480 CC and have recently found out i can not anchor at my favourite jewie spot... Have decided that i am going to install a minn kota ST with I pilot... Just a few questions...

with regards to the shaft length... how much do i need to allow for the prop to penetrate the water??

Secondly from your experience is it worth going for the 80 pound thrust??

Matty

[Geoff]

Hey Guys

I have a formosa 480 CC

Secondly from your experience is it worth going for the 80 pound thrust??

Matty

I think for a boat of that size you will need an 80lb motor , but be aware , 80lb require a 24V battery supply.

2 batteries , charger & fittings will cost around $1000

Geoff

[PlayerOne]

Yep.54lb definitely wont be enough for your boat....

[a boat]

Hi, I agree with the guys and the 55Lb will not be enough. We have fitted a fair few 80Lb Terrovas and they are very good and the I-Pilot is awesome. Water testing one latetr today. As Geoff pointed out, the M/K, deluxe quick release bracket, two deep cycle batteries, power boxes (the best way to fit M/Ks) and the wiring will not be cheap, but as with anything in life you get what you pay for and there is a right way to do anything and then usually the cheaper wrong way.

We will look at you if you buy here so contact me and I can give you the Raider price on all the above.

Cheers,

Huey.

[mattygong]

Thanks for the advise guys

I was thinking the 80.. but was not sure... Like everything to do with boats it always comes with a decent price tag.. But I think it will be well worth the investment! Be good to try something different.

Huey thank you I will keep that in mind... Firstly I have to get it to the shop and modify the bow rail to make some room for it.

Is it simple to remove with the quick release bracket so i can still fish outside??

Hi, I agree with the guys and the 55Lb will not be enough. We have fitted a fair few 80Lb Terrovas and they are very good and the I-Pilot is awesome. Water testing one latetr today. As Geoff pointed out, the M/K, deluxe quick release bracket, two deep cycle batteries, power boxes (the best way to fit M/Ks) and the wiring will not be cheap, but as with anything in life you get what you pay for and there is a right way to do anything and then usually the cheaper wrong way.

We will look at you if you buy here so contact me and I can give you the Raider price on all the above.

Cheers,

Huey.

[a boat]

Thanks for the advise guys

I was thinking the 80.. but was not sure... Like everything to do with boats it always comes with a decent price tag.. But I think it will be well worth the investment! Be good to try something different.

Huey thank you I will keep that in mind... Firstly I have to get it to the shop and modify the bow rail to make some room for it.

Is it simple to remove with the quick release bracket so i can still fish outside??

Yes, with the dleuxe quick release bracket it takes about 30 seconds to remove the M/K for the outside trips.

Cheers,

Huey.