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DIY Kayak trolling motor

redsquirrel

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For anyone who has done this or has advice, I am welcome to input. I have a Malibu stealth 12 that I am going to add this to. I already have a trolling motor and battery so it will just be a matter of building a mount and getting all the parts to run the controls up by me. I've been doing some research and watching some videos and I'm pretty sure this is the direction I want to go, but feel free to talk me out of it. I have looked at canoes and nucanoes. My dad has canoe I could take but it is aluminum. I already have my kayak and the trolling motor so it seems like a really good place to start. I was doing a lot of kayak fishing with it for a few years but I am fishing much less since becoming a dad and I want to make this more of a hunting access vehicle.

I also have some ideas for camo'ing it up besides just painting it, but I'm open to suggestions on that as well.

Thanks!
 
you can make a very nice and complicated rear mount with steering via rudder cables and foot pedals. plus like you said configuring a control box up by the seat. It would probably cost some money without clear instruction but I do like the looks of the rear mount setups.


or you can simply run a couple pipes into your rear fishing rod holders...attach a board to them so its extending out to the side a bit and then just hook your tm up to it like it was a transom. Tm would be right at your shoulder so its just a matter of turning a little and driving. You probably have materials to do this in your garage so it would probably cost nothing.
if you don't have fishing rod holders.....hook the board to a milk crate and place battery in milk crate to weigh it down
 
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Thanks guys!

you can make a very nice and complicated rear mount with steering via rudder cables and foot pedals. plus like you said configuring a control box up by the seat. It would probably cost some money without clear instruction but I do like the looks of the rear mount setups.
or you can simply run a couple pipes into your rear fishing rod holders...attach a board to them so its extending out to the side a bit and then just hook your tm up to it like it was a transom. Tm would be right at your shoulder so its just a matter of turning a little and driving. You probably have materials to do this in your garage so it would probably cost nothing.
if you don't have fishing rod holders.....hook the board to a milk crate and place battery in milk crate to weigh it down
You know, I was originally going to go with something like that. Now that you bring it up again, maybe I should try something like that first. I'm on the fence. I saw a video of a guy with a side mount that he was having to constantly adjust to have it track straight. I just pulled up another one that didn't look so bad. I'm undecided at this point and open to all input. And maybe I'll end up going with something else in the end lol.
 
I had a transom mounted foot control that tm mounted to. It tracked very well and could be overridden manually in a pinch. On and off toe switch worked just like the big boys. Power selections, forward and reverse had to be set by hand. Bought this at Bass Pro.
 
What battery are you planning on running? I highly recommend the VMAX deep cycle batteries to save weight if you can swing it. I have one for my trolling motor setup and it's right around 20lbs and small. I can run my 30lb trolling motor a LONG time on it. I also have a control system from Wireless Trolling Motor Pro that helps save battery and gives me variable speed control. I put up the links for you below

https://www.wirelesstrollingpro.com/
https://www.amazon.com/VMAX857-Batt...24718&sr=8-5&keywords=vmax+deep+cycle+battery
 
What battery are you planning on running? I highly recommend the VMAX deep cycle batteries to save weight if you can swing it. I have one for my trolling motor setup and it's right around 20lbs and small. I can run my 30lb trolling motor a LONG time on it. I also have a control system from Wireless Trolling Motor Pro that helps save battery and gives me variable speed control. I put up the links for you below

https://www.wirelesstrollingpro.com/
https://www.amazon.com/VMAX857-Batt...24718&sr=8-5&keywords=vmax+deep+cycle+battery
Forgot to thank you for this info. Ended up just buying the nucanoe so I'll look into these.
 
Lithium batteries and a modified trolling motor. There are some really awesome kayak motors (and trolling motors) with remote controls. Depends on how fancy and how much you are will to spend. For hunting, I still paddle for now (unless it is over 2 miles to get to location). I am actually thinking about buying a Pursuit for fishing and then making a very portable/light weight lithium/motor combo for my hunting rig.
 
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