Re: Kicker motor on Bass tracker boat
I'm back guys. Sorry for the late reply but late is better than never. Ok, here we go.
2001 Pro team 175. I used the stainless steel 2 stroke kicker garelick. Personally I think this thing sucks. The metal is cheap and has already bent up. The design is good but they put this thing together sub par. It needs washers on the inside of the "Plastic" handle which wears quickly and causes the pre cut groves to catch and make it a real female dog to lower and raise. That aside, I doubt you will find something better. I think with a 2010 model, you will be able to mount one without problems but with that 75, you must put the batteries up front. I tried not moving the batteries and the boat was really, really low in the back. This is not that big of a problem. All you need to do is
1. Buy 50 ft of 1/0 gauge wire off ebay. I think I got it for 50 bucks. I just looked but did not see any but I'm sure you will find it. I would not go with anything less than this as the current for the starter on the 75 is a heavy draw.
2. Cut into two pieces and you have your power. When you examine your boat you will find that the boat has a pvc pipe running up the rear side under the deck which has all the power wires and transponder wires. you will need to use this. It is very tricky to get that fat wire through, much more for 2 wires but it can be done. Trick is to take a broken fishing pole. Take all the eyes off, Duct tape a string on the end with a small metal nut. The end of the pipe is right next to the throttle. Jam that sucker all the way in and it should come out inside the very rear of the boat. The problem with this is there is a small cut in the aluminum where the wires come through. This is where the nut comes in handy. Get a telescoping magnet from Sears. Grab the nut and pull the string. Pull a second string through with that string and use your strings to pull each power wire through. Its up to you to duct tape your wire well enough so that your string does not come off half way through the pipe. Now you have your power wires.
3. Get a power block / fuse block and connect the power wires. Or just sodder and connect both power wires from kicker and main motor.
4. BIG TRICK HERE. I park my boat in my garage and it is a tight fit anyway. The kicker makes it twice as hard to park so I purchased a quick disconnect power unit.
http://www.powerwerx.com/anderson-powerpoles/powerpole-sets/sb175-sb-series-175-amp.html . These are used on tractor trailers to charge their batteires. This allows you to quickly unplug the power cable to the kicker and take the kicker off the boat.
5. Now you have the power wires under the deck and inside the rear where the batteries used to be. You have your power cable from your main motor. You have your power cable from your kicker. Install the quick connect for the kicker somewhere in the middle. Its now up to you to connect your power sources together. I will leave that up to you but I just used a power block used in high end speaker systems. The cheap rout and maybe the better route would be to just sodder all the wires together.
6. The big fat wires were some what easy to transfer from the rear to the middle of the boat but going from the middle to the front is more tricky. This is where it got a little ugly. I went to lowes and got an electical sleve that is used to cover wires and protect wires. I got the sleve just big enough to cover each wire. Then I ran the wire with the sleve over the edge of the boat until it got to the deck. I lifted the deck up, used a saw and cut a small slice into the edge of the deck where there was just enough clearnace to get the wires in there and have the ability to screw the deck down. I thought long and hard about how to waterproof this but I gave up and accepted that there was a small imperfection in this whole setup. You could possibly figure it out but I could give a crap less. Its a boat and it gets wet.
7. Move the starting battery under the deck. Lock it down, hook up the power and you can now start your motor.
8. You have your trolling motor and the battery. Wire the trolling motor to the trolling battery and you are done.
It may sound hard but honestly the hardest part was getting the power wire from the rear, through the pvc, and out next to the throttle control.
NOW, the kicker mount.
Ohh lordy, this is by far the hardest part. Only because your working with sharp metal. You have to mount the motor over far enough so that the kicker does not get in the way of the main motor. You will need to remove a metal plate which is inside the rear. This will give you access to the rear "wings" as I would call them, where you will be mounting the mount. There are rivets. Use a flat head screw driver and hammer them off. The plate will fall off and you will see all that boat stuffing. Cut just enough out to get access to where you are mounting the mount. Get stainless screws, I got grade 8 and I would suggest you do the same. Line up your mount, "WITH HELP FROM SOMEONES HANDS" and drill your holes straight. You will need to have wahsers made. I made square stainless washers. A friend made them for me and its good to go big enough. Bolt up and make sure to use sealant. Let sit and hook up the motor later. Your all done.
I will create a video about 5 minutes long and you will see that its not as hard as it sounds.
Touch back with me guys. I look forward to your install.
