Needing input on a trolling setup for my canoe.

[CommanderCrud]

Hello.

I'm going to purchase a trolling set up soon, problem is i don't know too much about it.

My canoe is a 15.5' square back. I'm thinking about getting a 40lb Minn Kota (max speed appx 4mph?). I was toying with the idea of going up to a 50lb but i imagine that would drain the battery rather quickly yeh?

I know very little about the battery, i was doing some reading on here and it sounds like a good direction to head is towards an AGM battery? I dont know which brand to look at. Being lightweight would obviously be nice. Rather not spend over $150.

I'd like one of those electronic battery boxes, I imagine those are handy.

Anyhow if you have any advice to post i'd appreciate it.

SIDENOTE: If i can figure out how to upload pics i'll drop a few.

[Gringo Pescador]

Hello.
I'm going to purchase a trolling set up soon, problem is i don't know too much about it.
My canoe is a 15.5' square back. I'm thinking about getting a 40lb Minn Kota (max speed appx 4mph?). I was toying with the idea of going up to a 50lb but i imagine that would drain the battery rather quickly yeh?
I know very little about the battery, i was doing some reading on here and it sounds like a good direction to head is towards an AGM battery? I dont know which brand to look at. Being lightweight would obviously be nice. Rather not spend over $150.
I'd like one of those electronic battery boxes, I imagine those are handy.
Anyhow if you have any advice to post i'd appreciate it.
SIDENOTE: If i can figure out how to upload pics i'll drop a few.

When I had my canoe (10' wide body) I had a Minkota 50 on it.
With a regular deep cycle marine battery (same size as a car battery - got the cheapest one they had at West Marine - about $50 I think).
I put the battery in the front of the canoe with the the motor in the back to balance out the weight.
On the battery side I attached heavy guage wires to the + and - sides about a foot long each. I then wired those to a three prong (female) plug (leaving one of the "prongs" dead/empty).
On the motor side I wired the male 3-prong plug in the same configuration.
With this setup all I had to do was drop the batter into the boat and plug the motor in - no messing around with wing nuts or anything.
When at home I would just keep the battery in the garage on a trickle charger.
With this setup I was able to troll for an entire day before the battery would be drained.
The only issue I had was that the trolling motor on the lowest speed would still push the canoe too fast for trolling - I remedied this be just turing the motor 180 degrees and trolling at the lowest speed in reverse. This worked great!
I also got one of the little Scotty hand crank downriggers and it worked well for a canoe as well.
Man- now that I think of it, I wish I hadn't sold that little thing, it was a sweet setup!

[Bodofish]

I doesn't take much motor to push a canoe. When I was growing up one of my buddies families had a 17 or 18 foot huge canoe. His dad got tired of paddling it on our Boy Scout outings and bought a "Ted Williams Approved" Sears Game Fisher 1.75hp outboard /W internal tank (I'm not really sure why we had to give it the full description everytime but, well there you are one of those thing you do when you're a kid.). That motor would push the canoe scary fast, a lot faster than anyone should go and with three people and gear to boot. That's a good tip about turning the motor around, maybe a 20#er would do for trolling.

[CommanderCrud]

Appreciate the input.

Today I saw an add in the paper for 30" shaft 30lb torq Minn Kota for $100 , that deal is too good to pass so i'll be going in that direction.

[dougw]

You want to talk scary fast? My dad built a redwood strip canoe. 18', extra wide, doubled the fiberglass. I want to say the thing weighed in at over 130 pounds, give or take. Well, they got the hair-brained idea to put the ONLY gas motor they had on it..... a 15 hp old something.... He said they could only idle the thing! Probably could water-ski behind that if you wanted to take your life into your hands!

I had a 35 pound thrust Minn Kota on that same canoe and it pushed it around fine. Just be sure you balance the weight out as suggested above and use your common sense. Canoes are made for a paddle, not a power motor, regardless of if they are square backed or not. They are not inherently stable. If stability is an issue, look for outriggers when adding a motor of either type.

[CommanderCrud]

Thanks for the input.

I ended up getting a 30lb MinnKota (30" shaft). Powered by an Optima AGM battery. I've gone out with it twice so far and it's pretty slick. First trip out to badger lake landed a nice little trout with in the first 5 minutes of trolling. Trolling on speed 1 is perfect so i don't think i'll get a higher powered motor.

Took a trip to the lake a few days ago and gave the battery a test drive, it lasted a good 5 hours at low speed and 2 hours at high. Pulled in 6 LM. I am a little disapointed we were able to drain the battery tho. Figured it would/should last longer. I've been charging it on 2amp setting with my new charger, that seems to take a very very long time. I'm thinkin' i'll just start charging the majority on 6amp and finish with 2. I dunno. I'm still not sure if it's best to charge after you get home or before you go out.

All in all i'm happy.

-Captain

[Bodofish]

Lead acid batteries like to be charged. The best is to use a charger for the AGM batteries and after they're full trickle them.

[Gringo Pescador]

I have a battery tender for my bike for the winter like this one http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-021-0123-Junior-Charger/dp/B000CITK8S/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1341671254&sr=8-2&keywords=battery+tender
In the summer I would charge mine to full charge with my regular battery charger set on 10 amp, then I would throw it on the tender until I went out again.

[triehl27]

I've got a 35 pound 7' livingston problly 100# with gear and 300# with me and gear, that I have decked out for lake duty. The other night I took it out with the 55# minnkota on it and it pushed great, little fast for trolling. Next night I took it out with my old 23# minnkota on it and it pushed great as well.

What I noticed was that the 55# had a TON of flex in the shaft and mount, while the 23# had non of the flex. Either pushed the boat just fine. The flex in the 55# really negates the extra thrust.

Battery wise I have a small (car size) Group 27 from walmart, Cheapest one they had, and it has out lasted my AGM's by 3 years. Trolling for 3 hours on either motor 2.75hrs at speed 1, and .25 of an hour at speed 4 while running the depth sounder didn't notablly change the monitor lights on the power center.

A couple of years ago Sportco had the 30# endura's on for $59. Went to get one and the kid brought out the 55#. I had paid, taken it home, went out on the lake before I really looked at it and realized what I had gotten for my $59. A $200 discount!