Will this set up work?

[cstoliker]

I have a deep V hull, 15' fiberglass 50Hp. I have a 115 Amp/hour battery and am looking at Minn Kota endura electric transom mount trolling motors. Just to maneuver while fishing and as back up in case the big motor was to quit.
I run the boat in a lake that is relatively calm and not that big. I think the farthest I could get from dock is maybe 5 miles.
I am looking at the 40 & 50 Lb thrust motors. Walmart has the 40 in stock with a 36" shaft and looks good. The 50, I would have to order and comes with a 42" shaft (witch may be to big)
Will this set up work? And is there any reason not to get the bigger 50Lb motor asside from price?

 

[jtexas]

Re: Will this set up work?

My experience with a 15' fiberglass trihull, is that 36 lbs was adquate until the wind gets up pretty good then it can soon become useless. Upgrade to 48 lbs did the trick. You can equip yourself for the "average" day when 40lbs will do, or for the "worst case scenario" in which your motor quits just when a thunderstorm is moving in, and you're drifting toward the riprap.....................

If that's your cranking battery (and it's not a deepcycle), you will be cutting it's life tragically short. Any time you draining a cranking battery below 80% state of charge, you are causing damage. You can easily get a deepcycle with plenty cranking amps if you want to go with a single battery. But don't expect your outboard to keep it charged -- T/M just uses too much juice. In fact you may very well expect to drain it till it can't crank the motor sometimes. Not such a big deal if you can rope start the outboard.

 

[cstoliker]

Re: Will this set up work?

Thanks, the battery is a (walmart special) Everstart 27 deep cycle. It says deep cycle but, to my understanding they are not true D/C nor are they cranking but some where in betwean. I can pull start the boat if need be. I allways charge the battery before going out and i have a 2nd (same model) battery on my camper but they are about 65lbs each so i just keep the one on the boat.

 

[jtexas]

Re: Will this set up work?

I have one of those for trolling, it's a heavy sumbich all right. It'll do the trick.