Trolling motors

[jasonballard]

I need an affordable bow mount trolling motor that is no longer sold. It seems like most of them now are all transom mount ( at least the affordable ones). Do you know if the transom mounts can be turned around to be like a bow mount? I guess it would be like some sort of conversion. What would be the easiest way to do this?

 

[Kenny Bush]

Re: Trolling motors

Man, you should be able to find a decent bow mount with no problem. Heck you can even buy an old burned up trolling motor and take the bow mount bracket off the motor and swap. All the catalogues have them(BassPro, West Marine). I have also seen them at Academy Sports. If you are need a very small one, that may be the problem, because most of the really small ones are for bass busters or small jonboats and they are transom mounts. Just keep looking and I am sure you will find one. I personally like the "Hand operated" bow mount model. Those foot controlled ones always give me trouble. In fact, I just bought a 60" Great White for my 23' center console. It wasn't cheap though........

 

[jasonballard]

Re: Trolling motors

I understand, I can find lots of them, but I am looking to spend 150 tops! The bracket is not th eproblem, I am wanting to know if it is possible to turnthe head or bottom around in or to operate the motor like in a bow position and not have the tiller handle pointing toward the water.

 

[Jwill]

Re: Trolling motors

I suggest you check out the classified sections on your local fishing web sites. Here in California I see good used bow mount trolling motors selling for around $100 almost daily. If you can't find one locally you can look on ebay. Just make sure the Seller has good feedback and the shipping costs aren't to high.<br />You cannot use a transom mount on the front unless the front of your boat is sqaure and your able to clamp it on. If you do that you will have to run the motor backwards or in reverse. You can buy a bracket that mounts on the front of the boat that will allow you to run a transom mount on the front.<br />I wouldn't mess with it because I doubt you would be happy going that route.<br />On small boats I just use a transom mount trolling motor on the transom and just run the boat backwards. Its alot easier to steer that way. <br />My reccomendations would be to buy a used cable steered bow mount trolling motor. If your boat is aluminum just screw a 1" piece of plywood to the top front of the boat (top of gunnel) and mount the trolling motor to that. I have done that to several boats and haven't had a problem yet.