Motorguide bow mount - Troubles

[ericmic]

1st time caller, long time listener here.

I have recently bought a 1996 Tracker Targa 18 that came with a manufacturer installed Motorguide pro*** (forgot the real name) 48lb bow mount motor. I love this boat (1st one for me) but I am learning to hate the mounting for this trolling motor. I have replaced all 4 isolator bolts twice and no matter how I torque them in they either break or wiggle free due to the poweron/off of the motor.

Last night, despite the new bolts I put in the night before, I almost lost the motor to the lake Erie gods . Three of the 4 bolts failed. I spoke with Motorguide support and they recommended drilling 4 more holes and using 8 isolator bolts.

Has anyone had similar difficulty with keeping these darn things mounted?

HELP!

Thanks in advance and I must say I love reading and learning from these forums.

Eric

 

[metriccrescentwrench]

Re: Motorguide bow mount - Troubles

That doesn't sound right, sounds like maybe the nuts are working loose(?). The bolts should be installed with self locking nuts (the ones with nylon inserts). That combined with large stainless steel washers to distribute the load should be all you need.

 

[ericmic]

Re: Motorguide bow mount - Troubles

The kit I have been trying to use is:

They are working loose and breaking.

One of two things seem to happen:

1) When Torqued so much there is no room for movement the rubber casing breaks (this happened last night on 3 of the 4)

2) If I tighten them to what I think is tight but not over torqued the rubber stretches from movement and they bubble. This causes a gradual but consisent bouncing of the motor until they ultimately fail.

The only other thing I can thing to do is dismantle the bow area and use bolts/nuts with oversized washers and not utilize the Isolator bolt kits.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Motorguide bow mount - Troubles

Is the area perfectly flat on which the motor is mounted? If not, there is no way you can properly mount this without shimming the high corners. If the area is not flat, you a stressing two bolts. I've used this system on 50 and 55# Minnkota PD's for years and never had failures. Something is definitely wrong with your setup.

 

[metriccrescentwrench]

Re: Motorguide bow mount - Troubles

Guess my first reply was off base - didn't realize you were talking about the rubber mounts. Personally I'd go with stainless bolts, washers, and self locking nuts. Simple and trouble free.

 

[ericmic]

Re: Motorguide bow mount - Troubles

Thank you for the replies.

Silvertip - no the area is not 100% flat as the inside of the gunnels has a small 1/8" lip. You are correct on the stressing. It is definately the front 2 bolts that receive the brunt of the force.

So what I think I am going to do.

1) Boar out 4 additional mounting holes
2) Front 4 mounting holes = Stainless steel bolts, rubber spacers, big honking washers (distribute load some) and self-locking nuts.
3) Use the Isolator kits on the 4 remaining mounting holes.
4) Before torqueing anything I will make sure everything is as level as it can be.

Gonna tackle this in force tomorrow and get to test it out Saturday.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Motorguide bow mount - Troubles

No need to drill a bunch of extra holes, Just shim the plate properly so equal force is applied on all bolts. A 48# motor should not cause these issues.

 

[ericmic]

Re: Motorguide bow mount - Troubles

Ok so here is what I did. I took the advice of both Silver and Metric and well not the prettiest but damned if it works

Thank you for the ideas and help!