Trolling Motor with Bow Rail

[cloonkeen]

I have a 19 foot Key West with a 12 inch high bow rail. I want to mount a trolling motor on the bow without cutting the railing . Is it possible to slide the motor under the railing when I want to use it.
Any comments or pictures would be much appreciated.

Does anyone have a Motor Guide- saltwater -. There is a huge price difference - less- than the Minn Kolta .

Thanks

cloonkeen.

[texomablue]

I have a 19ft Wellcraft with a Saltwater Motor Guide and I love it 13 yrs old never a problem. The ft of my boat has a pulpit so we extended the bow rail and it works great.

Texomablue

[Capt Rick]

Bought a new remote control MotorGuide trolling motor about two month's ago and the transmission went out. You could hear the motor run that turned it from left to right, but it wouldn't turn.

I decided to fix it my self. There is not that many moving parts in the transmission any way....
Well I put it on the table in the shop and decided to tear it down and see what was wrong.

Here is the unit opened up.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f68/RickHiott/Trollmotor01.jpg


Come to find out, the little electric motor that turned the transmission had a tiny gear on it that had striped on the shaft that it was pressed on.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f68/RickHiott/Trollmotor03.jpg

Here is the gear that I had to do some work on. As you can see, its pretty small.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f68/RickHiott/Trollmotor02.jpg

What I did was cut the top of the shaft that came out of the electric motor and also the plastic gear so I could re-enforce it with a small piece of steel.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f68/RickHiott/Trollmotor04.jpg

I left the motor in place and also covered up everything with a rag when I did my grinding to keep the fragments of metal and plastic out of the transmission.
Here is an old feeler gauge that I cut the end off of and used to fill in the grove that was cut with a high speed grinder (Dremel Tool).
A VERY small piece was cut off the end of it and used inside the grove with epoxy to make sure the small shaft didn't slip inside the gear again.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f68/RickHiott/Trollmotor05.jpg

Here is the finished product. Ill give it until tomorrow to set up and cure.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f68/RickHiott/Trollmotor06.jpg

Ill let you know how long it last..........(But Im pretty sure it will last longer than two month's)

[Hinez13]

I have a 19 foot Key West with a 12 inch high bow rail. I want to mount a trolling motor on the bow without cutting the railing . Is it possible to slide the motor under the railing when I want to use it.
Any comments or pictures would be much appreciated.

Does anyone have a Motor Guide- saltwater -. There is a huge price difference - less- than the Minn Kolta .

Thanks

cloonkeen.

I had the same issue with my 16' CC. After getting mostly garbage advice to either remove the bow rail all together, or cut the rail on one side I decided to make my own mount. I used a piece of 12"x24"x 1/2" Starboard to make a mount that sits outside the rail. This way the trolling motor can deploy easily. It has held up so far and looks a hell of a lot better than cutting the rail. It also allows more use of the casting deck when the trolling motor is not in use because it sits outside the rail. The only drawback is having to be careful when docking to ensure I don't bang the trolling motor into the dock with a large wake but good fender placement prevents that. I could send you some pics if you are interested and/or answer any questions you have about it. Overall it was a pretty easy job.

[cloonkeen]

Thanks for the reply.
I would love to see pictures of the mount you made.
My E mail is glynn@tishman.com

Thanks a lot.

[acarpenter]

I have a motor guide saltwater trolling motor. 55 lb thrust, 24V, bow gator mount with quick release, foot control power with extend tiller handle for steering.