Newbie Trolling Motor Question

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pramos

Recruit
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Messages
3
First off, I must say that I am a boating newbie. I just recently purchased a used 2-man bass boat. Because of my limited budget I started with a purchase of a 30# Motorguide motor – it seems to be very adequate for the 10’ boat. <br /><br />My question is and I am sure this has been asked before is whether or not I can reverse it to be a bow mount rather than a transom mount motor. I think this would involve removing the 5 screws on the upper head portion and maybe rotating the unit. This is just a guess though. <br /><br />The motor has 5 speeds in forward and 2 in reverse – currently I have it mounted in on the bow and just use the 2 reverse speeds to go forward and use the forward speeds to go in reverse. This seems to work just fine, but I thought I would see if anyone knew if doing this would cause any damage to the motor.<br /><br />Would appreciate any advice on rotating the motor or if I should just stick with what I am doing. Thanks!
 
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Luna Sea

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
May 20, 2002
Messages
1,069
Re: Newbie Trolling Motor Question

I know the Minn Kota rotates 180, think the MG does too. Undo some screws and...........good luck!
 
Kenneth Brown

Kenneth Brown

Captain
Joined
Feb 3, 2003
Messages
3,481
Re: Newbie Trolling Motor Question

Ever think of hooking the battery clamps up the other way?
 
D

DuPont Spinner

Seaman
Joined
Jul 8, 2003
Messages
53
Re: Newbie Trolling Motor Question

It's not uncommon to remove the screw that holds the control head on the shaft and turn the control head around 180 degrees. This will permit the control head to point towards the front seat and the motor/prop to face the rear of the boat, when mounted on the front of the boat. I've done it on Minnkota and Motor Guide motors. Give it a try. DuPont
 
L

Link

Rear Admiral
Joined
Apr 13, 2003
Messages
4,221
Re: Newbie Trolling Motor Question

pramos <br />From what I've been reading try what Luna Sea and DuPont said..<br /> DuPont Spinner as soon as I saw your nick or handle I knew you had to be from around here :) <br /><br /> BANG! <br />Link
 
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pramos

Recruit
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Messages
3
Re: Newbie Trolling Motor Question

Thanks for all the replies - I really appreciate it. I am going to attempt to do this sometime this week. <br /><br />Dupont? I am assuming you mean remove the control head cover and then there will be a screw inside somewhere?
 
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pramos

Recruit
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Messages
3
Re: Newbie Trolling Motor Question

Well, I finally got around to trying this over the weekend. It actually went pretty good. I removed the 5 phillips screws which held the plastic cover on the control head. <br /><br />Once I had the cover removed I could visually see a carriage bolt that went through the shaft. The carriage bolt was held on by a nylon lock nut. In order to get to the bolt off I had to remove two small comonents that were used in the mounting of the control handle - this was easy and had no problems. When those parts were out of the way I was able to remove the lock nut and rotate the shaft 180 degress with no problems - I paid extra attention to insure I wasn't twisting the wires that were inside the shaft. This probably only took about 15 minutes. <br /><br />After rotating it I began to put everything back together was careful to not strip the plastic out with the self tapping screws. <br /><br />The only problem now is that once it has been rotated the handle and the propellor do not line up in a straight line - it is off by about 5 degrees - I haven't used it yet so I don't know if it is going to be a big problem or not. <br /><br />I could not stand looking at this so I took it apart another time and looked everywhere for anything that could be causing the misalignment - I couldn't find anything. <br /><br />I would be curious to hear if anyone else has experienced this or if I should even worry about it. Thanks
 
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