I have a playlist of Trolling Motor related videos: th-cam.com/play/PLP_T5TIhc845V7FZm-QiKDYBTSUyGpGLu.html Do you need any of the items shown in this video? ► Here is a link to purchase trolling motors and accessories from Amazon: amzn.to/4gURZrW As an Amazon Associate I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.
Your reasons for testing this variety of electric motors are exactly why I'm watching this video. I am the beginner, about to buy a trolling motor for my new inflatable kayak. Thanks mate
Hi Wayne. Your video sounds about right. In 2012 I bought my Sea Eagle Paddleski 435ps inflatable which is a unique kayak/boat hybrid. It was used twice, and came with a Minn Kota 28 lbs motor that was also bought new in 2009. I used the Minn Kota for a year. It was fine for most lakes and calm weather, but I went boating several times a week at all different locations as my boat fits in my trunk. I had taken it on the bay a few times where it was a real struggle to get back with strong winds unexpectedly kicking up, and sometimes currents. My full sail rig got me out there, but was almost too strong to sail back with my kind of rig and no way of reefing/reducing sail area. If I had a passenger & myself, it was a challenge to get back. At one place I felt I had to walk the boat in the water from the beach back into the cove to get back to the launch. Another time we went out to see the Old Saybrook lighthouse and was unaware of the strong current there at sunset. My now wife says "we're not moving". I had the motor on 3 out of 4 and we had a couple miles to go. The battery would have died at full speed. Our solution was keep it on 4 and both paddle with the included kayak paddles our boat came with. We were exhausted when we returned. Our Minn Kota charger died quickly and I called the company up about it. While on the phone, I explained about needing a more powerful motor to get out of wind & current. I asked a few questions about their 55 lbs motors. They said......don't even bother, it will barely make much of a difference over the 28 lbs. Minn Kota's Power Center battery box while nice in features, all the electronics on it like the battery indicator and terminals rotted out quickly. The motor I assume still works and has been sitting in storage since 2013. The transom bolts are rusted as I didn't think to rinse them in fresh water, but the motor was rinsed when used in salt water. Not wanting to be limited where we could go boating when there are so many great places an hour or two away in our area, ultimately opted for a much more expensive motor. The Torqeedo Travel 1003s. It was a totally unique motor at the time offering the speed & power of a 3 HP gas motor in an electric that was light weight too. They had cost $2000 with battery back in 2012, and I bought a used one that was 2 years old for $1200. No other motor like it on the market. Some years later, the propulsion came out almost directly copying it. The prices eventually went up even higher sadly. I still love my Torqeedo, although after a decade it did need some servicing, and it seems most motors in that time frame that get any real use electric or gas will need some servicing. And fortunately Torqeedo was a big enough company and very widely distributed (a lot more than ePropultion) that there was a factory service center just an hour from me. Plus I can buy parts & batteries in stock at my local area at several different places including West Marine. I doubt that is the case for most with Chinese ePropultion products. I use the motor in both salt and fresh water. More fresh than salt. After a decade, I'm told there is virtual no signs of salt water corrosion. I generally rise the motor with my water bottle at the launch when I pack up, and make sure I take the boat to a lake in a few days or no more than a week's time to more thoroughly rinse out the salt water. Seems to have worked so far. I really love my Torqeedo Travel motor that is over a decade old now. It allows me to go boating at places that I feel are otherwise unsafe or too far out of reach with a trolling motor. To see how fast this motor goes on a similar boat to mine (my tubes are much smaller as mine is technically a kayak but the boat shape is similar), check out the TH-cam video titled "Moteur Torqeedo 1003 S sur annexe" and advance to 1:00. Watch how fast the boat passes the channel markers. The motor while it has a high pitch, is way more quiet than a gas motor and doesn't bother me in the least. But to compete against ePropultion, they redesigned the motor to be completely quiet (and charged more money) but the noise is no issue at all. Much quieter than it appears in the videos too. You can easily talk to your front passenger.
I bought a 40lb thrust Minn Kota several years ago from a pawn shop for $125. It worked great on my 12 foot wooden fishing skiff and was super quiet! I no longer have the skiff or the trolling motor, but I have a 14 foot aluminum V-hull that has a 1969 Evinrude 25hp on it. I finally got tired of being stranded by that old motor and pulled the trigger on a brand new 18hp Hangkai outboard. It's an off brand, but it has some pretty good reviews. That being said I still don't want to get stranded and have to paddle back to the dock, so I also bought a new 40lb thrust Minn Kota as well. If the outboard does break down at least I can use the trolling motor to get back, instead of paddling! Because, it never fails that I always seem to be paddling against the wind when a motor fails!
Thanks for the great info. By the way I just put my old Shakespeare which I inherited many years ago, dusted it off and it ran like a new motor while pushing my restored 12 foot StarCraft. Keep the videos coming . . .
They main two things you need for increasing speed is ensuring your thrust is higher than your drag at the given speed, and that the speed of water being thrown back by the prop is faster than the speed your trying to go. These trolling motors have high thrust but aren’t throwing the water back very fast so they can only go so quick. That’s why people can use custom props and go faster on small boats/kayaks, but they wouldn’t be able to push a big boat as easily as stock
@@juicysfruits7599 totally it's all about the pitch of the blade. It doesn't matter if it's a trolling motor or an inboard diesel. You can't go faster than the props top speed
Honestly, i really just enjoy seeing you boat around. Gives me a taste of what it is like, i wouldn't be against a video where you just tour around for half an hour lol
I’m glad you fixed the little Minn Kota instead of taking it back it would’ve just gone in the garbage. Nothing has good QC anymore, I’m not surprised it has little issues.
I have an old 27 lb-ft MinnKota, probably made in USA. It's silent. I've tested it on different boats your size plus 1300lb 21ft sailboat. Always similar results. Would have been good of you to measure amps with the different motors. These motors are simply made to go 2-3 mph for slow fishing. The rpm is like turning a screw, that's the speed the screw progresses provided enough power to turn at the speed selector rate. You only need more lb-ft for heavier loads to maintain prop speed. Basically, 30 lb-ft is going to push most boats, especially if there isn't a ~100+ lb outboard.
I have used a Newport 36 for 2 seasons on my 14' sailing skiff to get in and out of certain harbors, and a Newport 62 on my 18' pocket sailing cruiser this season. (also have a nice 3.5 gas outboard on that, as needed for waves and longer passages) The Newport products are very well made. Super quiet as well. They have 3 reverse speeds and 5 forward. Super convenient. I've even used them to 'motor sail' in very light air. It actually works wonderfully as it gives a little more "apparent wind" and seems to multiply the effect of the existing wind. Newport also has all kinds of notes in the box etc. saying to call them if any issues. (Never had to though.)
I paid $60 for my MinnKota 30lb motor 14-15 years ago, WITH a battery! I still use that trolling motor every year! I’ve had to replace the speed control in it last year and the tilt latch. Still works great! And now I got my bow mount MinnKota 50lb for my 17’ aluminum boat for free!
I originally had a Minn Kota Endura 30 on my 14 foot fiberglass boat. This boat was customized with pedestal seats and some other stuff so it was a touch heavier than stock. The Endura 30 really struggled to push the boat with 2 people in windy conditions, so I bought an Endura Maxx 45 and I could not believe the difference. I about doubled my speed to about 3 MPH, but more importantly, I no longer had to fight the wind to be able to get across my little lake.
I've had my fresh water Minn Kota Endura 55 for a couple of years now. It's smooth, quiet, and powerful. I use it on a positively antique 11.5 foot aluminum v hull boat. Why a 55 on such a small boat? I never go out alone. I always have a fishing buddy (near fatal accident once when alone). Add in the gear and we're trying to move some weight around! It gets windy around here. I need a motor that will get us back to the dock or ramp. I run 2 batteries in parallel. I have plenty of speed and battery capacity for a day of fishing on the local lakes. My boat goes fast enough to blow what's left of my hair back. ;-)
That's great information on that endura motor. looks like it's just casting flash on the prop they didn't bother to clean up before coating. pretty easy cleanup. thanks great info
Hi Wayne, great videos. As someone in the comments mentioned you should try a lithium battery with your trolling motors as these days they are getting more affordable. At my local Walmart I picked up a 30lb thrust Venom Watersnake trolling motor saltwater addition for the same price as the freshwater Minkota $150 Paired it with a 12v 100ah lithium battery on a 13’ gheenoe and I was getting upto 5 mph with 2 adults and fishing gear. 6 months with the setup and its still running like new.
More power or namely torque turns a prop easier in the water. How fast you go is a function of rpm, prop pitch, and prop slip, prop slip is affected by weight, hull type, and drag. These trolling motors all run about the same rpm with not a lot of prop pitch difference, so they'll go relatively close to the same speed. They're for trolling after all, an acrivity done at 1-2 mph. You could prop the 55lb model with a more aggressive prop pitch and go faster. Prop pitch is measured by how many inches a prop will push itself in a single rotation with zero slip. With zero slip a 19 inch prop will move forward 19 inches. The added "thrust" just means these bigger trolling motors wont bog down and will be able to reach max rpm in stronger currents or on heavier boats. It would be interesting ro do a video with a prop guy and an older gas outboard with a few props to show under rev/bogging, over rev, and being propped correctly. Propper rigging is am interesting topic, there is tossing a motor on a boat or the science of rigging a boat.
I use a newport 40# and a 46#. I LOVE the 46# as I have used it for a few years now in brackish and salt water. The 40 was part of a package as I have not seen a 40# thrust trolling motor from them. Works great on a catamaran/kayak (WaveWalk) 14'
I have a 55bl trolling motor from amazon it was 120, and I got 4 mph on my 10-foot rib and 5 mph on my 10-foot kayak. Good for that little help at the end of the day
I'm convinced that the higher thrust motors are needed to go faster on small boats like this, but they can't do it with higher thrust alone. I think they need higher output rpms and/or higher pitched props, which probably would overwork the lower thrust motors. With gasoline outboards, that seems to hold true. The pitch and available torque and the boat weight all need to be in a certain balance if you switch from a power prop to a speed prop, for instance, otherwise you end up just bogging down the engine. For a typical trolling motor user, slowly moving a small, medium or large boat to fishing speeds is all they want and the motor makers easily address that with more torque/thrust. I dream of the day when some YT visionary DIYs a geared or belted module that slips over the shaft and motor bell of a 55 lb motor (or better yet, a 78 pound, 24 volt motor) to step up the rpm at the module's own output shaft to generate more forward distance over unit of time with the standard props or maybe even a higher pitched prop, in the case of the 24 volt motor. Any chance that you could test the rpms of the various electric boat motors that you use in all your videos? It might shed some light on whether that is the limiting factor or not when seeking more speed. Love all your videos and your efforts to investigate a topic that I think is growing in interest among boaters and fishermen.
Prop pitch is measured in how far forward a prop will move through the water in a single rotation in perfect conditions (basically no boat attached). RPM and pitch determine speed, hp or torque determine how high of a pitch in prop you can use. If I have my bigger buddies on my boat I prop down 2 inches to not bog down the motor, we go slower than at a higher pitch but accelerate better. I can hit the same speed in my boat heavy with the more aggressive prop, but the motor lugs through the mid revs, which isn't good for it. Multiple motor boats will have higher pitch props as well, because they work together but are mechanically limited to a max rpm.
Yes that Minkota 30 with that noise is surprising. I’ve owned I think three bow mount hand control models 55 pound thrust I use on my sixteen foot aluminum fishing boat it’s got floor live well remote ( side control etc.). I use it for fishing and run the trolling motor hard and they’re pretty good. I’ve had to repair all three, same part the variable speed switch. They last for two to three years of hard use than go KA put. Pretty easy to replace, but I’ve never heard the prop sound of that thirty👍
Good review. If you want max performance use LiFeP04 battery, they have slightly higher operating voltage which stays almost flat across bulk of charge range. The AGM will drop slightly across charge range. 12v into 1ohm(12Ax12v) =144W compared to 13v into 1ohm(13Ax13v)= 169W. That 1v difference =17% more power. If it is 1.5V then it is 28%, not unrealistic at higher currents when AGM is
Interesting testing, and, like other comments noted, I feel that the speed is for trolling and fishing while the thrust capacity is for the size of boat (load). Another thought that crossed my mind was to question the different props across the 3 motors tested. Were they all the same pitch and diameter? A change in these rates would show the abilities of the motors to take a higher load, providing you could source different pitch and/or diameter props for those various motors. Still, a nice test, and a good video.
Great video yet again Wayne, long comment alert.... Think of pounds of thrust as the size of a motor, 30lb could be a small 4cyl, while the 55lb is a bigger V8 motor. The 30lb draws less power like a 4cyl would, while the 55lb draws a bit more. Both will have the same top speed give or take a little on the same size craft. The 55lb will get you through wind, waves and current a lot easier than the 30lb while achieving around the same top speed
@@WayneTheBoatGuy Wayne, I'm possibly getting more of the aftermarket props in the near future.... I'll be sure to send u a couple to compare, they definatly make it go faster
Anyone have any experience with a 55 lb thrust motor on an inflatable in a saltwater harbor ? I'm looking at a 12 to 14 foot inflatable for my wife and 2 year old just to cruise around our local harbor here in San diego, but I have zero experience with electric trolling motors and am unsure if it has enough power to combat the tide and small currents in the harbor , appreciate any feedback in advance
Good video and it answered some questions about thrust / speed. I wonder about maybe 2 of the 30 pound thrust motors mounted vrs the way more expensive white salt water one. mount the two lower thrust motors as close together as possible and attach an arm between the handles so when you move one you move both and since they are so close it would be quick to adjust the speed settings on each one.
The position below the water line the motor will make a difference in the speed of the boat. The 55 should do a lot more than what you got. I ran a 55 on an 18 f00t bass boat for years and it did a great job.
I had a Shakespeare TM identical to that one that was a sales spiff acquisition...I used it on my first jonboat that I modified to be a baby bass boat. I used it on the transom; had a MinnKota foot control on the front. Current boat has a Garmin Force ($$$$$$$) 24v. That old Shakespeare is now at a cabin in Minnesota being used on a small inflatable...still purrs and it's over 40 years old.
Thank you so much for this information! And I love that you were able to fix the Minn Kota problem, rather than send it back where it probably goes into the landfill. One question, when my guy goes fishing, there are usually at least two people in the 14ft aluminum boat. Does the additional weight change the amount of pounds or thrust? If so, what should I buy? I’m looking at getting it for Christmas. Many thanks for your expertise.
The higher thrust motors do help with additional weight. But if the total weight (people and boat) is under 1,600 lbs in a 14 foot boat, a 30-40 lb thrust 12 volt motor is what brands like Minn Kota suggest.
I would be curious to see the amperage draw for the different motors. It may be that the battery is the limiting factor between the 30 and 55lb motors.
Awesome video just as you said I’m planning to buy a new trolling motor and you answered the questions I needed and I couldn’t find. Is it possible to make a quick video of the breaker you mentioned earlier? Cheers
Just go to autozone or similar and tell them you want a 40-50 amp breaker ( instructions for motor or online will tell you what size ) and why .. they will set you up .. simply mount breaker on to battery post and motor out from that
Still looking for that $30 small yard sale motor!!! I need a small fishing movement thruster for my kayak to share duties with my 3hp electric main motor! I saw a couple of cheap Sigmas but they were some distance away. A good fishing movement kayak thruster, I believe.
Wayne, you may want to get with fellow TH-camr rctestflight to see if he can 3D print you a prop to get you going faster. If I could get the file I’ll print to for you. Great video.
I got that thunk on my minkota 45 edge, and I figured out the problem. It was the stock "power prop" they come with rubbing on the motor case. I simply sanded the prop in a few spots to fix the problem. I figured this out when I bought a new prop for mine and it didn't make any sound. Interestingly enough the minkota weedless wedge is actually a larger diameter prop but pushes my boat about 0.4 mph slower. I have an Edge 45, endura 30 and 55. All of them push the boat near the same speed (very minor difference between the 3). They all run out of rpm and are limited due to this. Pounds of thrust doesn't seem to be the limiting factor on small boats. I've done lots of testing with a battery shunt to see amp draw and they all draw around the same power. If you look at replacement props you'll learn this as the 30-55 use the same model and size prop. I think that holds true today and until you get to the 24v models. My favorite think about minkota is replacement parts and cross model parts sharing. I've got hundreds if not thousands of hours on my edge 45 and needed to do brushes. You can purchase every single part individually and they are a breeze to rebuild. That may be the case with other brands too.
@@skyl4rkwith my 45lb thrust on setting 5 with the weedless wedge I see 38-40A inrush, tapering off to 36-37 as the boat comes to max speed. With the power prop I see 36-38A inrush tapering to 34-35A. The 30 pulls less inrush, and takes longer to get to speed. 55 is a bit more inrush but they all fall into the 34-38A draw when the boat is finally at max speed. That is all on my 14ft Jon. On my 16 ft kayak they all draw less amperage, but speed is basically the same across all of them and both boats Weedless wedge is about 0.3-0.5 slower across the board, but true to its name it really makes a difference in how often you have to pull it to clear weeds.
I enjoyed the test and your style of presentation, and the concept of which motors where better value for money, the one thing missing was how long the motors lasted on a fully charged battery, and at different low, medium, high settings,
This is a very racist comment, and I wish I could meet you face to face about it…. @WayneTheBoatGuy I can’t believe you have guidelines about being respectful in your comments but you not only support but encourage this type of racist comment. You just lost a follower and I can’t wait to run into you here in MD to confront this racism. Disgusting 💯
Another great video Wayne. I love these experiments you do. I'm just about to change the prop on my old Motorguide which has been a bit slow lately. Moving from a 2 blade to a 3 blade 'machete' prop. Any experience or thoughts on this mod?
I have not started down the road of playing with props - yet! I do find it interesting that some small motors have 3 and some have 2. There's a channel @rctestflight who recently conducted a HUGE very scientific test of several different prop types and styles on a little remote control boat.
Whatever you use, invest in a PWM. Easy to install, cheap and with basic skills ,you get about 30% more run time for bigger waters. I even added one to a 24v 80lb minn kota.
All the electric motors propellers are tuned by pitch to push at a certain speed (3 mph)full speed to keep the motor from overheating. A more aggressive prop could move you to 4, 5 or even 7mph max. The problem is you have to make the pitch change as no one makes a prop for speed. Theymale fancy props but no higher speed.
nice segment Wayne. nice comparison. I have a Newport 55 lb thrust, saltwater. it works well on my two Old Town canoes. good work troubleshooting the issue. I think i would take the Min Kota back and exchange it. I haven't used it in the bay but I've used it in the Patuxent and some small Virginia lakes. the noise was a sound effect to make you think you had a big gas motor.....lol. thanks for sharing.
I have a cheapish one and it goes fine, using for over five years now as spare on tender and yacht if needed, 54+ pound thrust for memory, plastic prop needs replacing every so often at around $35:00 not bad for the reliability. Think it cost me around $450:00 Australian, not worth me spending in excess of $2500+ for the other makes, most likely $3500for the same thrust.
🌴 Hi Wayne , along time ago you had the 55 lb thrust riptide minncota saltwater demo, it was about the same time I had just found a 45 lb thrust riptide at a Goodwill store for $50 bucks and it was in pretty good condition, I still haven’t used mine yet as I’m still working on my project boat , but the saltwater models are a lot better made as they need to handle the corrosive saltwater and with proper washing after use they should hold up , now your 55 lb minncota being in freshwater should make it indestructible as long as no circuits go wack , brand new them riptides were expensive but I think well worth the money in saltwater, the cheap ones would get ate up quick .as for the speed 🤔 maybe prop change but I’ve heard other people have done it and burnt up their motors as it puts to hard of a strain on them 🫲🏼😳🫱🏼
@@WayneTheBoatGuy I’ve got a couple corrosion bubbles , but I’m just going to grind them out and fill them in with epoxy and repaint it , was thinking about using some of the new nano wax that they have out after I paint it , so it has that Rain X type of thing to repel water or salt water, had a guy tell me he used it on his race boat bottom to create less friction from the water , hummm, sounded good to me 😏
all those trolling motors use a very low pitch propeller since they are meant to maneuver around slowly. the speed of any boat is based on pitch of propeller which is how far forward the propeller screws through water each rotation the rpm the motor produces and the slippage of propeller in the water a tiny propeller will slip more than a larger one and the heavier the boat is the more slippage and resistance to forward motion so a very light boat only goes a small amount faster with more power because the motor only spins so fast
I've had nothing but an absolute pleasure with my minn kota 55lb it's not the saltwater version was only 250 or 300. With a 6 year warranty. Just wish the blades were sharper and actually cut the weeds and lilys. About 5- 6 mph with a 12 footer
I bought a 45 lb trust MinKota Endura trolling motor at Bass Pro Shops for $279 with a $30 rebate. Followed the rebate instructions to a T and made copies of everything before mailing in for the rebate. 8 years later, I am still waiting for my rebate. Contacted them numerous times via email/phone. Nothing but crickets. Piss poor Customer Service. Buyer beware!
The other consideration is the amperage draw to get that 55 lbs of thrust versus running a 14 lb thrust motor. Over the whole day out fishing, the higher power usage will add up and deplete the battery more. Batteries are rated in Amp Hours, and Amp Hours are limited by the battery capacity.
Seems to be a common thing with those " rebates" Got a $30 rebate with a Taurus pistol... Needed all info uploded including a couple pics of the stickers on the box! Then down load another form to a printer to fill out and mail in! They claimed that i needed another pic...which i resent ...then ... crickets! Never doing another rebate!
It's all to do with the hull speed of the boat. Because the motors don't have the power to get the boat to plane so the boat is on a displacement efficiency so it won't matter how many pounds of thrust you add
Have a Minkota 50 freshwater, perfectly silent, about 4 MPH in my 12 ft vhull with 4 people, We call it "silent drive" Which it certainly is compared to my 50 year old Mercury 2 strokes 😂
Yep! Nearly the same speed. Sure, you can be under the efficiency vs the weight of a boat. But when you become over efficient vs weight. These E-motors usually have the same pitch prop and the same RPM motor. The only difference you will notice is the acceleration from 0 to 3 mph. The design theory is: More thrust for bigger boats. Not faster!
Does your 55 pound thrust motor require two batteries and series? You may not be getting the full thrust from that motor if you’re not hooking it up properly. Just asking.
I have a minn kota 30# suounds nothing like that I'd take that back. I have the Shakespeare or similar mine has the speed dial I've used on my canoe , compared to the minn kota think of the model t 😂 i also have a 55# trolling motor but its a watersnake only paid $150. To me the minn kota is the best deal.
I put one of these on a canoe and it was really fun until DNR stopped me for not having a registered motor craft , didn't get a ticket but had to row back to shore
I would imagine displacement hull speed has a lot to do with finding the right size motor. In this test the smallest never got there, the mid got there... just, the large got their comfortably with reserve. Much larger motors may get you to the hull speed faster but the speed gain doesn't match the spend.
Hull speed on a 14' boat is around 5.7 mph (to be accurate, waterline length of this boat is less than 14', but even if that length were as low as 12', which it's not, hull speed would be 5.3 mph). Having rowed a lot of different boats, I'm convinced that a person could row that boat faster than those motors made it go in this video (though it might not be something a person would want to do for a long time). At hull speed, you will start to see a definite sag in the elevation of the stern, not a full-on "squat" like a motor boat that's pushing hard while well below planing speed, but you will see it, and the wake will increase noticeably in size. I have 15' rowboat shaped approximately like a canoe, and at it's length the hull speed is about 5.9 mph, and I can row it at 6.0 mph, but that's essentially the limit even though I have a bit of extra strength to spare when I first reach that speed. No amount of additional effort will make it go faster except perhaps by a perhaps a tenth of a mph - not enough to matter. This boat is less streamlined, but regardless, any increase in effective thrust WILL increase the speed of the boat, until you get to hull speed when the law of diminishing returns increases so suddenly that it's like hitting a wall when you get there. In short, something else is going on here to explain why two different motors of such greatly different thrust potential result in the same speed. Some have suggested that this is an issue of prop pitch, but since the prop will be slipping when producing full thrust at a standstill, and it's still slipping quite a lot when the boat is moving along, I don't think insufficient pitch can explain this. My first guess is that there is a voltage drop under load, and the more amps you draw, the more your voltage drops too. It might be the fault of the battery, especially since you mention that the battery is several years old. Oh, this post is getting long but I can also mention I have a 55# Motor Guide on a 14' fiberglass boat with a heavier overall load, and a less-efficient tri-hull which "plows" water at slow speed, and though I haven't measured top speed (and in fact I really never have any use for anything close to top speed), even a speed of 7 or 8 (out of 10) is a whole lot faster than what's seen in this video. Based on a lot of experience in rowboats and canoes, I'm guessing top speed is 6 mph or a bit more, or just a bit beyond hull speed - but I would have to verify that. This is another reason to suspect something could be improved about how the tested motors performed in this clip.
I have an old 9.8 mercury motor that sat for many years all i did was run it out of gas last time i used it and it started up with some fresh gas it had been sitting so many years the rubber water pump impeller needed replacing but it ran fine I also got an old 5 hp air cooled sears motor started and ran fine with nothing done to it.
Would be instructive to have an amp meter on the battery .... internal resistance might limit power output, making all motors run with about the same power.
I have two minn kota electric motors. I use a 12 volt battery. Can’t be simpler. I don’t want the expense of a 48 volt battery set up. Where I fish ( on smaller lakes) it just not worth the expense
Use a lifepo4 battery . And trow that lead battery by the junk. A lead battery full load on it the volts go down easy to 10/11 volts. Well a lifepo4 stay on 13.3 volts with a load on it.
That doesn’t say much for Minn Kotas quality control. I bought a 46 pound Newport last year and it is actually too fast. I troll to find Crappie, and even on 1 it’s too fast for proper lure action. I think I will sell it and go back to a 30. Amazing that there was literally no speed difference between the 30 and 55. The 55 would obviously have more torque to deal with more weight and weather conditions.
Your getting up to hull speed, water line lengths square root times @1.36 it takes a lot of power to exceed hull speed. Far more than an electric trolling motor produces
Believe it or not, your numbers are not correct. Your 55 should push that boat to 5mph. You need to use a wrench on the battery nuts, and put a volt meter on that battery to measure running voltage. Next, put a lithium battery on there that doesn’t have voltage drop, and brace yourself because top speed can be even higher. I have seen 5mph at 10 volts running. Each volt is 1 mph more. That means the Minn Kota will go 9 mph at 14volts running voltage. The question is in the resistance of the hull. My test boat was a 16 foot Mirrocraft.
The prop is out of balance it is easy to fix just balance the prop I used a drill, small bolt, spun the prop and used a file the take off the high spots anyone with a drill can do it OR just buy a new propeller for the motor but I fixed mine it had the same problem.
Or return it for exchange or refund. Modern China/misc Asia stuff is a ratio of failure vs testing. They simply accept a failure rate of 10 to 20% and let the customer test it for them. They don't take time to clean up plastic castings by hand with a file or a razor knife....they slap em together as fast as possible. If they have to refund 15% of the sales...that's ok as the unit cost $40 so they make 10x that in retail.
If I got it at cost...say $30to50...then yes I'd complete their QA and mitigation finishing for them.... if I'm paying 150 to 200...then the store owes me a new one.
This exercise was not to get one of these going as fast as possible - but whether or not there is any benefit to buying one with more thrust for a small and light boat.
return it fast get a new one your only asking for problems down the road with that one . had the next model up from that one about $280leaked water in to the mtr did not take it in in time by a couple of days they would not honor warranty fixed it ourself but only lasted a couple of uses something wrong with mtr case could not get it to stop leaking so thing only lasted less than a season about 6 times quality not what it use to be on Minnkota's
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I have a playlist of Trolling Motor related videos: th-cam.com/play/PLP_T5TIhc845V7FZm-QiKDYBTSUyGpGLu.html
Do you need any of the items shown in this video?
► Here is a link to purchase trolling motors and accessories from Amazon: amzn.to/4gURZrW
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Your reasons for testing this variety of electric motors are exactly why I'm watching this video. I am the beginner, about to buy a trolling motor for my new inflatable kayak. Thanks mate
Glad to help!
Hi Wayne. Your video sounds about right.
In 2012 I bought my Sea Eagle Paddleski 435ps inflatable which is a unique kayak/boat hybrid. It was used twice, and came with a Minn Kota 28 lbs motor that was also bought new in 2009.
I used the Minn Kota for a year. It was fine for most lakes and calm weather, but I went boating several times a week at all different locations as my boat fits in my trunk. I had taken it on the bay a few times where it was a real struggle to get back with strong winds unexpectedly kicking up, and sometimes currents. My full sail rig got me out there, but was almost too strong to sail back with my kind of rig and no way of reefing/reducing sail area. If I had a passenger & myself, it was a challenge to get back. At one place I felt I had to walk the boat in the water from the beach back into the cove to get back to the launch. Another time we went out to see the Old Saybrook lighthouse and was unaware of the strong current there at sunset. My now wife says "we're not moving". I had the motor on 3 out of 4 and we had a couple miles to go. The battery would have died at full speed. Our solution was keep it on 4 and both paddle with the included kayak paddles our boat came with. We were exhausted when we returned.
Our Minn Kota charger died quickly and I called the company up about it. While on the phone, I explained about needing a more powerful motor to get out of wind & current. I asked a few questions about their 55 lbs motors. They said......don't even bother, it will barely make much of a difference over the 28 lbs. Minn Kota's Power Center battery box while nice in features, all the electronics on it like the battery indicator and terminals rotted out quickly. The motor I assume still works and has been sitting in storage since 2013. The transom bolts are rusted as I didn't think to rinse them in fresh water, but the motor was rinsed when used in salt water.
Not wanting to be limited where we could go boating when there are so many great places an hour or two away in our area, ultimately opted for a much more expensive motor. The Torqeedo Travel 1003s. It was a totally unique motor at the time offering the speed & power of a 3 HP gas motor in an electric that was light weight too. They had cost $2000 with battery back in 2012, and I bought a used one that was 2 years old for $1200. No other motor like it on the market. Some years later, the propulsion came out almost directly copying it. The prices eventually went up even higher sadly.
I still love my Torqeedo, although after a decade it did need some servicing, and it seems most motors in that time frame that get any real use electric or gas will need some servicing. And fortunately Torqeedo was a big enough company and very widely distributed (a lot more than ePropultion) that there was a factory service center just an hour from me. Plus I can buy parts & batteries in stock at my local area at several different places including West Marine. I doubt that is the case for most with Chinese ePropultion products.
I use the motor in both salt and fresh water. More fresh than salt. After a decade, I'm told there is virtual no signs of salt water corrosion. I generally rise the motor with my water bottle at the launch when I pack up, and make sure I take the boat to a lake in a few days or no more than a week's time to more thoroughly rinse out the salt water. Seems to have worked so far.
I really love my Torqeedo Travel motor that is over a decade old now. It allows me to go boating at places that I feel are otherwise unsafe or too far out of reach with a trolling motor. To see how fast this motor goes on a similar boat to mine (my tubes are much smaller as mine is technically a kayak but the boat shape is similar), check out the TH-cam video titled "Moteur Torqeedo 1003 S sur annexe" and advance to 1:00. Watch how fast the boat passes the channel markers. The motor while it has a high pitch, is way more quiet than a gas motor and doesn't bother me in the least. But to compete against ePropultion, they redesigned the motor to be completely quiet (and charged more money) but the noise is no issue at all. Much quieter than it appears in the videos too. You can easily talk to your front passenger.
I bought a 40lb thrust Minn Kota several years ago from a pawn shop for $125. It worked great on my 12 foot wooden fishing skiff and was super quiet! I no longer have the skiff or the trolling motor, but I have a 14 foot aluminum V-hull that has a 1969 Evinrude 25hp on it. I finally got tired of being stranded by that old motor and pulled the trigger on a brand new 18hp Hangkai outboard. It's an off brand, but it has some pretty good reviews. That being said I still don't want to get stranded and have to paddle back to the dock, so I also bought a new 40lb thrust Minn Kota as well. If the outboard does break down at least I can use the trolling motor to get back, instead of paddling! Because, it never fails that I always seem to be paddling against the wind when a motor fails!
Thanks for the great info. By the way I just put my old Shakespeare which I inherited many years ago, dusted it off and it ran like a new motor while pushing my restored 12 foot StarCraft.
Keep the videos coming . . .
They main two things you need for increasing speed is ensuring your thrust is higher than your drag at the given speed, and that the speed of water being thrown back by the prop is faster than the speed your trying to go.
These trolling motors have high thrust but aren’t throwing the water back very fast so they can only go so quick. That’s why people can use custom props and go faster on small boats/kayaks, but they wouldn’t be able to push a big boat as easily as stock
@@juicysfruits7599 totally it's all about the pitch of the blade. It doesn't matter if it's a trolling motor or an inboard diesel. You can't go faster than the props top speed
Thanks for taking the time to test and share this video. I love this kind of frugal thinking and action. Thumbs up from me.
Honestly, i really just enjoy seeing you boat around. Gives me a taste of what it is like, i wouldn't be against a video where you just tour around for half an hour lol
I’m glad you fixed the little Minn Kota instead of taking it back it would’ve just gone in the garbage. Nothing has good QC anymore, I’m not surprised it has little issues.
I have an old 27 lb-ft MinnKota, probably made in USA. It's silent. I've tested it on different boats your size plus 1300lb 21ft sailboat. Always similar results. Would have been good of you to measure amps with the different motors. These motors are simply made to go 2-3 mph for slow fishing. The rpm is like turning a screw, that's the speed the screw progresses provided enough power to turn at the speed selector rate. You only need more lb-ft for heavier loads to maintain prop speed. Basically, 30 lb-ft is going to push most boats, especially if there isn't a ~100+ lb outboard.
I have used a Newport 36 for 2 seasons on my 14' sailing skiff to get in and out of certain harbors, and a Newport 62 on my 18' pocket sailing cruiser this season. (also have a nice 3.5 gas outboard on that, as needed for waves and longer passages) The Newport products are very well made. Super quiet as well. They have 3 reverse speeds and 5 forward. Super convenient. I've even used them to 'motor sail' in very light air. It actually works wonderfully as it gives a little more "apparent wind" and seems to multiply the effect of the existing wind. Newport also has all kinds of notes in the box etc. saying to call them if any issues. (Never had to though.)
I paid $60 for my MinnKota 30lb motor 14-15 years ago, WITH a battery! I still use that trolling motor every year! I’ve had to replace the speed control in it last year and the tilt latch. Still works great! And now I got my bow mount MinnKota 50lb for my 17’ aluminum boat for free!
Got my first 12v 55lb motor for an inflatable seahawk 4. I hope I did well. Thank you for the help.
I originally had a Minn Kota Endura 30 on my 14 foot fiberglass boat. This boat was customized with pedestal seats and some other stuff so it was a touch heavier than stock. The Endura 30 really struggled to push the boat with 2 people in windy conditions, so I bought an Endura Maxx 45 and I could not believe the difference. I about doubled my speed to about 3 MPH, but more importantly, I no longer had to fight the wind to be able to get across my little lake.
I've had my fresh water Minn Kota Endura 55 for a couple of years now. It's smooth, quiet, and powerful. I use it on a positively antique 11.5 foot aluminum v hull boat. Why a 55 on such a small boat? I never go out alone. I always have a fishing buddy (near fatal accident once when alone). Add in the gear and we're trying to move some weight around! It gets windy around here. I need a motor that will get us back to the dock or ramp. I run 2 batteries in parallel. I have plenty of speed and battery capacity for a day of fishing on the local lakes. My boat goes fast enough to blow what's left of my hair back. ;-)
Hi Wayne, try the exact same test. however do it with a 100 amp, 12 volt lithium battery. You will be surprised with the results.
That's great information on that endura motor. looks like it's just casting flash on the prop they didn't bother to clean up before coating. pretty easy cleanup. thanks great info
Yeah I’m hoping a little more cleaning gets it to 100%
Good video! Very interesting!
1st engine thumping sounded like Quint over stressing the Orcas engine while Jaws was chasing them!
lol - yes it did!
Hi Wayne, great videos. As someone in the comments mentioned you should try a lithium battery with your trolling motors as these days they are getting more affordable. At my local Walmart I picked up a 30lb thrust Venom Watersnake trolling motor saltwater addition for the same price as the freshwater Minkota $150 Paired it with a 12v 100ah lithium battery on a 13’ gheenoe and I was getting upto 5 mph with 2 adults and fishing gear. 6 months with the setup and its still running like new.
More power or namely torque turns a prop easier in the water. How fast you go is a function of rpm, prop pitch, and prop slip, prop slip is affected by weight, hull type, and drag. These trolling motors all run about the same rpm with not a lot of prop pitch difference, so they'll go relatively close to the same speed. They're for trolling after all, an acrivity done at 1-2 mph. You could prop the 55lb model with a more aggressive prop pitch and go faster. Prop pitch is measured by how many inches a prop will push itself in a single rotation with zero slip. With zero slip a 19 inch prop will move forward 19 inches. The added "thrust" just means these bigger trolling motors wont bog down and will be able to reach max rpm in stronger currents or on heavier boats. It would be interesting ro do a video with a prop guy and an older gas outboard with a few props to show under rev/bogging, over rev, and being propped correctly. Propper rigging is am interesting topic, there is tossing a motor on a boat or the science of rigging a boat.
Your videos are the best, thank you for this demo
Thanks for watching!!
I use a newport 40# and a 46#. I LOVE the 46# as I have used it for a few years now in brackish and salt water. The 40 was part of a package as I have not seen a 40# thrust trolling motor from them. Works great on a catamaran/kayak (WaveWalk) 14'
I have a 55bl trolling motor from amazon it was 120, and I got 4 mph on my 10-foot rib and 5 mph on my 10-foot kayak. Good for that little help at the end of the day
I'm convinced that the higher thrust motors are needed to go faster on small boats like this, but they can't do it with higher thrust alone. I think they need higher output rpms and/or higher pitched props, which probably would overwork the lower thrust motors. With gasoline outboards, that seems to hold true. The pitch and available torque and the boat weight all need to be in a certain balance if you switch from a power prop to a speed prop, for instance, otherwise you end up just bogging down the engine. For a typical trolling motor user, slowly moving a small, medium or large boat to fishing speeds is all they want and the motor makers easily address that with more torque/thrust.
I dream of the day when some YT visionary DIYs a geared or belted module that slips over the shaft and motor bell of a 55 lb motor (or better yet, a 78 pound, 24 volt motor) to step up the rpm at the module's own output shaft to generate more forward distance over unit of time with the standard props or maybe even a higher pitched prop, in the case of the 24 volt motor.
Any chance that you could test the rpms of the various electric boat motors that you use in all your videos? It might shed some light on whether that is the limiting factor or not when seeking more speed. Love all your videos and your efforts to investigate a topic that I think is growing in interest among boaters and fishermen.
Prop pitch is measured in how far forward a prop will move through the water in a single rotation in perfect conditions (basically no boat attached). RPM and pitch determine speed, hp or torque determine how high of a pitch in prop you can use. If I have my bigger buddies on my boat I prop down 2 inches to not bog down the motor, we go slower than at a higher pitch but accelerate better. I can hit the same speed in my boat heavy with the more aggressive prop, but the motor lugs through the mid revs, which isn't good for it. Multiple motor boats will have higher pitch props as well, because they work together but are mechanically limited to a max rpm.
Great content. At against a relatively slow river current and 5-10 mph wind, it may be awhile.
I prefer the motor guide 30# thrust for my 10' John boat . Went through 2 minnkotas in 2 years . Had my motor guide for 4 years with no problems .
You should try those 2 blade long thin drone props on each motor as the drone props seem to always go much faster.
Yes that Minkota 30 with that noise is surprising. I’ve owned I think three bow mount hand control models 55 pound thrust I use on my sixteen foot aluminum fishing boat it’s got floor live well remote ( side control etc.). I use it for fishing and run the trolling motor hard and they’re pretty good. I’ve had to repair all three, same part the variable speed switch. They last for two to three years of hard use than go KA put. Pretty easy to replace, but I’ve never heard the prop sound of that thirty👍
Good review. If you want max performance use LiFeP04 battery, they have slightly higher operating voltage which stays almost flat across bulk of charge range. The AGM will drop slightly across charge range. 12v into 1ohm(12Ax12v) =144W compared to 13v into 1ohm(13Ax13v)= 169W. That 1v difference =17% more power. If it is 1.5V then it is 28%, not unrealistic at higher currents when AGM is
Nice Work..... very helpful...
Interesting testing, and, like other comments noted, I feel that the speed is for trolling and fishing while the thrust capacity is for the size of boat (load). Another thought that crossed my mind was to question the different props across the 3 motors tested. Were they all the same pitch and diameter? A change in these rates would show the abilities of the motors to take a higher load, providing you could source different pitch and/or diameter props for those various motors.
Still, a nice test, and a good video.
Great video yet again Wayne, long comment alert.... Think of pounds of thrust as the size of a motor, 30lb could be a small 4cyl, while the 55lb is a bigger V8 motor. The 30lb draws less power like a 4cyl would, while the 55lb draws a bit more. Both will have the same top speed give or take a little on the same size craft. The 55lb will get you through wind, waves and current a lot easier than the 30lb while achieving around the same top speed
Hmm - could be fun to do another test on a windy day!
@@WayneTheBoatGuy Wayne, I'm possibly getting more of the aftermarket props in the near future.... I'll be sure to send u a couple to compare, they definatly make it go faster
@@codyakfishing8856love to try them!
Great way to explain it, I was thinking the same thing. if you upped the prop size the 55 lb. would run circles around the 30 lb.
Anyone have any experience with a 55 lb thrust motor on an inflatable in a saltwater harbor ? I'm looking at a 12 to 14 foot inflatable for my wife and 2 year old just to cruise around our local harbor here in San diego, but I have zero experience with electric trolling motors and am unsure if it has enough power to combat the tide and small currents in the harbor , appreciate any feedback in advance
Good video and it answered some questions about thrust / speed. I wonder about maybe 2 of the 30 pound thrust motors mounted vrs the way more expensive white salt water one. mount the two lower thrust motors as close together as possible and attach an arm between the handles so when you move one you move both and since they are so close it would be quick to adjust the speed settings on each one.
The position below the water line the motor will make a difference in the speed of the boat. The 55 should do a lot more than what you got. I ran a 55 on an 18 f00t bass boat for years and it did a great job.
I had a Shakespeare TM identical to that one that was a sales spiff acquisition...I used it on my first jonboat that I modified to be a baby bass boat. I used it on the transom; had a MinnKota foot control on the front. Current boat has a Garmin Force ($$$$$$$) 24v. That old Shakespeare is now at a cabin in Minnesota being used on a small inflatable...still purrs and it's over 40 years old.
That’s awesome
Thank you so much for this information! And I love that you were able to fix the Minn Kota problem, rather than send it back where it probably goes into the landfill. One question, when my guy goes fishing, there are usually at least two people in the 14ft aluminum boat. Does the additional weight change the amount of pounds or thrust? If so, what should I buy? I’m looking at getting it for Christmas. Many thanks for your expertise.
The higher thrust motors do help with additional weight. But if the total weight (people and boat) is under 1,600 lbs in a 14 foot boat, a 30-40 lb thrust 12 volt motor is what brands like Minn Kota suggest.
You can get a Newport Vessel 55lb thrust way cheaper than Minn Kota. Plus it is made for saltwater and freshwater.
Dziękuję za rzetelny test silników wiedzc że czasami nie warto przepłacać
Pozdrawiam
dziękuję za obejrzenie mojego filmu
I would be curious to see the amperage draw for the different motors. It may be that the battery is the limiting factor between the 30 and 55lb motors.
Good review thanks
Awesome video just as you said I’m planning to buy a new trolling motor and you answered the questions I needed and I couldn’t find.
Is it possible to make a quick video of the breaker you mentioned earlier?
Cheers
Just go to autozone or similar and tell them you want a 40-50 amp breaker ( instructions for motor or online will tell you what size ) and why .. they will set you up .. simply mount breaker on to battery post and motor out from that
Another great video. Return the Minn Kota.
Still looking for that $30 small yard sale motor!!! I need a small fishing movement thruster for my kayak to share duties with my 3hp electric main motor! I saw a couple of cheap Sigmas but they were some distance away. A good fishing movement kayak thruster, I believe.
Wayne, you may want to get with fellow TH-camr rctestflight to see if he can 3D print you a prop to get you going faster. If I could get the file I’ll print to for you. Great video.
I got that thunk on my minkota 45 edge, and I figured out the problem. It was the stock "power prop" they come with rubbing on the motor case. I simply sanded the prop in a few spots to fix the problem. I figured this out when I bought a new prop for mine and it didn't make any sound. Interestingly enough the minkota weedless wedge is actually a larger diameter prop but pushes my boat about 0.4 mph slower.
I have an Edge 45, endura 30 and 55. All of them push the boat near the same speed (very minor difference between the 3). They all run out of rpm and are limited due to this. Pounds of thrust doesn't seem to be the limiting factor on small boats. I've done lots of testing with a battery shunt to see amp draw and they all draw around the same power. If you look at replacement props you'll learn this as the 30-55 use the same model and size prop. I think that holds true today and until you get to the 24v models.
My favorite think about minkota is replacement parts and cross model parts sharing. I've got hundreds if not thousands of hours on my edge 45 and needed to do brushes. You can purchase every single part individually and they are a breeze to rebuild. That may be the case with other brands too.
@@timlong1462 how many amps do the draw at high speed?
@@skyl4rkwith my 45lb thrust on setting 5 with the weedless wedge I see 38-40A inrush, tapering off to 36-37 as the boat comes to max speed. With the power prop I see 36-38A inrush tapering to 34-35A. The 30 pulls less inrush, and takes longer to get to speed. 55 is a bit more inrush but they all fall into the 34-38A draw when the boat is finally at max speed. That is all on my 14ft Jon. On my 16 ft kayak they all draw less amperage, but speed is basically the same across all of them and both boats
Weedless wedge is about 0.3-0.5 slower across the board, but true to its name it really makes a difference in how often you have to pull it to clear weeds.
I enjoyed the test and your style of presentation, and the concept of which motors where better value for money, the one thing missing was how long the motors lasted on a fully charged battery, and at different low, medium, high settings,
Yeah that may be a video for another time!
The new motor sounded like The African Queen, while running from the Germans! lol
Fully got that visual in my head. Damn I am old. 😂
@@buddyrevell6369 lol
Yes! lol
This is a very racist comment, and I wish I could meet you face to face about it…. @WayneTheBoatGuy I can’t believe you have guidelines about being respectful in your comments but you not only support but encourage this type of racist comment. You just lost a follower and I can’t wait to run into you here in MD to confront this racism. Disgusting 💯
@@WayneTheBoatGuy 6:45 most older honda motors you probably could if you just change the old gas for fresh gas and mash the primer bulb like 20 times
Another great video Wayne. I love these experiments you do. I'm just about to change the prop on my old Motorguide which has been a bit slow lately. Moving from a 2 blade to a 3 blade 'machete' prop. Any experience or thoughts on this mod?
I have not started down the road of playing with props - yet! I do find it interesting that some small motors have 3 and some have 2. There's a channel @rctestflight who recently conducted a HUGE very scientific test of several different prop types and styles on a little remote control boat.
I bought a Pelican bass raider and a 50lb thrust Minn kota Endurance for 759.00 $ at Academy in Killeen Texas 4 days ago.
Whatever you use, invest in a PWM. Easy to install, cheap and with basic skills ,you get about 30% more run time for bigger waters. I even added one to a 24v 80lb minn kota.
All the electric motors propellers are tuned by pitch to push at a certain speed (3 mph)full speed to keep the motor from overheating. A more aggressive prop could move you to 4, 5 or even 7mph
max. The problem is you have to make the pitch change as no one makes a prop for speed. Theymale fancy props but no higher speed.
nice segment Wayne. nice comparison. I have a Newport 55 lb thrust, saltwater. it works well on my two Old Town canoes. good work troubleshooting the issue. I think i would take the Min Kota back and exchange it. I haven't used it in the bay but I've used it in the Patuxent and some small Virginia lakes. the noise was a sound effect to make you think you had a big gas motor.....lol. thanks for sharing.
Yeah it was loud!
I have a cheapish one and it goes fine, using for over five years now as spare on tender and yacht if needed, 54+ pound thrust for memory, plastic prop needs replacing every so often at around $35:00 not bad for the reliability. Think it cost me around $450:00 Australian, not worth me spending in excess of $2500+ for the other makes, most likely $3500for the same thrust.
Prop pitch may be the limiting speed factor in light boats. They are designated as trolled motors which is not how a lot of us want to use them.
Yeah - good point! Which is why any of the ones I tried would do fine for actual trolling.
you seemed to have the trolling motors in different positions on the tilt. which would make them run different speeds?
🌴 Hi Wayne , along time ago you had the 55 lb thrust riptide minncota saltwater demo, it was about the same time I had just found a 45 lb thrust riptide at a Goodwill store for $50 bucks and it was in pretty good condition, I still haven’t used mine yet as I’m still working on my project boat , but the saltwater models are a lot better made as they need to handle the corrosive saltwater and with proper washing after use they should hold up , now your 55 lb minncota being in freshwater should make it indestructible as long as no circuits go wack , brand new them riptides were expensive but I think well worth the money in saltwater, the cheap ones would get ate up quick .as for the speed 🤔 maybe prop change but I’ve heard other people have done it and burnt up their motors as it puts to hard of a strain on them 🫲🏼😳🫱🏼
Yeah I’ve seen what some freshwater ones look like after a few years around here in our brackish water. But my 55 is doing great.
@@WayneTheBoatGuy I’ve got a couple corrosion bubbles , but I’m just going to grind them out and fill them in with epoxy and repaint it , was thinking about using some of the new nano wax that they have out after I paint it , so it has that Rain X type of thing to repel water or salt water, had a guy tell me he used it on his race boat bottom to create less friction from the water , hummm, sounded good to me 😏
all those trolling motors use a very low pitch propeller since they are meant to maneuver around slowly. the speed of any boat is based on pitch of propeller which is how far forward the propeller screws through water each rotation the rpm the motor produces and the slippage of propeller in the water a tiny propeller will slip more than a larger one and the heavier the boat is the more slippage and resistance to forward motion so a very light boat only goes a small amount faster with more power because the motor only spins so fast
I've had nothing but an absolute pleasure with my minn kota 55lb it's not the saltwater version was only 250 or 300. With a 6 year warranty. Just wish the blades were sharper and actually cut the weeds and lilys. About 5- 6 mph with a 12 footer
Yeah the weedless nature of these props is questionable
I bought a 45 lb trust MinKota Endura trolling motor at Bass Pro Shops for $279 with a $30 rebate. Followed the rebate instructions to a T and made copies of everything before mailing in for the rebate. 8 years later, I am still waiting for my rebate. Contacted them numerous times via email/phone. Nothing but crickets. Piss poor Customer Service. Buyer beware!
The other consideration is the amperage draw to get that 55 lbs of thrust versus running a 14 lb thrust motor. Over the whole day out fishing, the higher power usage will add up and deplete the battery more. Batteries are rated in Amp Hours, and Amp Hours are limited by the battery capacity.
Seems to be a common thing with those " rebates"
Got a $30 rebate with a Taurus pistol...
Needed all info uploded including a couple pics of the stickers on the box!
Then down load another form to a printer to fill out and mail in!
They claimed that i needed another pic...which i resent ...then ... crickets!
Never doing another rebate!
It's all to do with the hull speed of the boat. Because the motors don't have the power to get the boat to plane so the boat is on a displacement efficiency so it won't matter how many pounds of thrust you add
Sounds like a two-stroke electric trolling motor!
Have a Minkota 50 freshwater, perfectly silent, about 4 MPH in my 12 ft vhull with 4 people, We call it "silent drive" Which it certainly is compared to my 50 year old Mercury 2 strokes 😂
I’d take that Shakespeare motor any day.
And yes, I would run it in brackish water
They seem to pop up for sale quite often.
You should make a video about small boat trailers please
I have often wondered if you could simply run 2 of the 30 lb motors alongside each other. Increase top speed, and have a spare if one breaks
IDK why this is vibrating - keeps going 😂
Yep - that's me!
2:36 sound modul ?
Yep! Nearly the same speed.
Sure, you can be under the efficiency vs the weight of a boat. But when you become over efficient vs weight. These E-motors usually have the same pitch prop and the same RPM motor. The only difference you will notice is the acceleration from 0 to 3 mph. The design theory is: More thrust for bigger boats. Not faster!
Does your 55 pound thrust motor require two batteries and series? You may not be getting the full thrust from that motor if you’re not hooking it up properly. Just asking.
No, mine is a 12 volt. Some are 24 volts but not this one.
I put a Kippawa prop on my Minn kota 30lb and picked up 1mph!
I have a minn kota 30# suounds nothing like that I'd take that back. I have the Shakespeare or similar mine has the speed dial I've used on my canoe , compared to the minn kota think of the model t 😂 i also have a 55# trolling motor but its a watersnake only paid $150. To me the minn kota is the best deal.
I dont get more than 3.5mph out of my 55lb Newport Vessel trolling motor. Im wondering how are these ppl getting more speed as well.
I put one of these on a canoe and it was really fun until DNR stopped me for not having a registered motor craft , didn't get a ticket but had to row back to shore
Similar boat with a 55lbs powerdrive with an aftermarket propeller will get into the low 4 mph range in still water
I would imagine displacement hull speed has a lot to do with finding the right size motor. In this test the smallest never got there, the mid got there... just, the large got their comfortably with reserve. Much larger motors may get you to the hull speed faster but the speed gain doesn't match the spend.
Hull speed on a 14' boat is around 5.7 mph (to be accurate, waterline length of this boat is less than 14', but even if that length were as low as 12', which it's not, hull speed would be 5.3 mph). Having rowed a lot of different boats, I'm convinced that a person could row that boat faster than those motors made it go in this video (though it might not be something a person would want to do for a long time). At hull speed, you will start to see a definite sag in the elevation of the stern, not a full-on "squat" like a motor boat that's pushing hard while well below planing speed, but you will see it, and the wake will increase noticeably in size. I have 15' rowboat shaped approximately like a canoe, and at it's length the hull speed is about 5.9 mph, and I can row it at 6.0 mph, but that's essentially the limit even though I have a bit of extra strength to spare when I first reach that speed. No amount of additional effort will make it go faster except perhaps by a perhaps a tenth of a mph - not enough to matter. This boat is less streamlined, but regardless, any increase in effective thrust WILL increase the speed of the boat, until you get to hull speed when the law of diminishing returns increases so suddenly that it's like hitting a wall when you get there. In short, something else is going on here to explain why two different motors of such greatly different thrust potential result in the same speed.
Some have suggested that this is an issue of prop pitch, but since the prop will be slipping when producing full thrust at a standstill, and it's still slipping quite a lot when the boat is moving along, I don't think insufficient pitch can explain this. My first guess is that there is a voltage drop under load, and the more amps you draw, the more your voltage drops too. It might be the fault of the battery, especially since you mention that the battery is several years old.
Oh, this post is getting long but I can also mention I have a 55# Motor Guide on a 14' fiberglass boat with a heavier overall load, and a less-efficient tri-hull which "plows" water at slow speed, and though I haven't measured top speed (and in fact I really never have any use for anything close to top speed), even a speed of 7 or 8 (out of 10) is a whole lot faster than what's seen in this video. Based on a lot of experience in rowboats and canoes, I'm guessing top speed is 6 mph or a bit more, or just a bit beyond hull speed - but I would have to verify that. This is another reason to suspect something could be improved about how the tested motors performed in this clip.
@@ericl2969 it's interesting you mentioned prop pitch. Have you tried the apc rc prop? Search utube for the vids.
I have an old 9.8 mercury motor that sat for many years all i did was run it out of gas last time i used it and it started up with some fresh gas it had been sitting so many years the rubber water pump impeller needed replacing but it ran fine
I also got an old 5 hp air cooled sears motor started and ran fine with nothing done to it.
Would be instructive to have an amp meter on the battery .... internal resistance might limit power output, making all motors run with about the same power.
Made the electronic motor sound like an engine lol card in the spoke type thing
Totally!
I have two minn kota electric motors.
I use a 12 volt battery. Can’t be simpler. I don’t want the expense of a 48 volt battery set up.
Where I fish ( on smaller lakes) it just not worth the expense
Simple can be really great!
Use a lifepo4 battery .
And trow that lead battery by the junk.
A lead battery full load on it the volts go down easy to 10/11 volts.
Well a lifepo4 stay on 13.3 volts with a load on it.
That doesn’t say much for Minn Kotas quality control. I bought a 46 pound Newport last year and it is actually too fast. I troll to find Crappie, and even on 1 it’s too fast for proper lure action. I think I will sell it and go back to a 30. Amazing that there was literally no speed difference between the 30 and 55. The 55 would obviously have more torque to deal with more weight and weather conditions.
send this video to Minn Kota with a simple WTF emoji and see what reaction you get. LOL
The difference in 'old money' between a 30lb and 55lb thrust motor is about 0.5hp
It seems like it might be less than that.
Bring it back
Your getting up to hull speed, water line lengths square root times @1.36 it takes a lot of power to exceed hull speed. Far more than an electric trolling motor produces
That trolling motor sound like a 4 stroke 🤣
Yessir
Worse!
Believe it or not, your numbers are not correct. Your 55 should push that boat to 5mph. You need to use a wrench on the battery nuts, and put a volt meter on that battery to measure running voltage. Next, put a lithium battery on there that doesn’t have voltage drop, and brace yourself because top speed can be even higher. I have seen 5mph at 10 volts running. Each volt is 1 mph more. That means the Minn Kota will go 9 mph at 14volts running voltage. The question is in the resistance of the hull. My test boat was a 16 foot Mirrocraft.
You need to freshly charge the battery for each test as it is as old as the old tiny motor
The battery is still good.
@@WayneTheBoatGuy thanks for replying Wayne I think your aluminium boat has a glide limit of 3mph should try a 3.5hp to see the difference
The prop is out of balance it is easy to fix just balance the prop I used a drill, small bolt, spun the prop and used a file the take off the high spots anyone with a drill can do it OR just buy a new propeller for the motor but I fixed mine it had the same problem.
Or return it for exchange or refund.
Modern China/misc Asia stuff is a ratio of failure vs testing. They simply accept a failure rate of 10 to 20% and let the customer test it for them. They don't take time to clean up plastic castings by hand with a file or a razor knife....they slap em together as fast as possible.
If they have to refund 15% of the sales...that's ok as the unit cost $40 so they make 10x that in retail.
If I got it at cost...say $30to50...then yes I'd complete their QA and mitigation finishing for them.... if I'm paying 150 to 200...then the store owes me a new one.
the big difference is in ruff weather
Taker back and trade it out Wayne I just want you to have a good ride
In line fuse ? Who knew thank you
Pooe QC on the Mind Kota.
Change the prop pitch. They are all pitched for trolling not speed.
This exercise was not to get one of these going as fast as possible - but whether or not there is any benefit to buying one with more thrust for a small and light boat.
I got a 86lb thrust running on 24v on my patal boat and I got 7 mph
This isn't really a good test the 55lb thrust would go faster with a different prop but its hard to justify the difference in cost
I am testing the motors how they come as new (or used) without any modifications.
Need better battery setup.
Yes - but this is what many people still use!
Your 55 lbs motor likely can't draw the amps it requires to top out. Need to know more about your battery.
I hadn't heard about that aspect before - not that I'm doubting it - but I will try it with another battery!
Your 55 was hardly in the water,hear the prop slap the water,drop it and test again
The motor was well below the bottom of the boat - I have blue painters tape wrapped to let me know how far to drop it.
return it fast get a new one your only asking for problems down the road with that one . had the next model up from that one about $280leaked water in to the mtr did not take it in in time by a couple of days they would not honor warranty fixed it ourself but only lasted a couple of uses something wrong with mtr case could not get it to stop leaking so thing only lasted less than a season about 6 times quality not what it use to be on Minnkota's
Dang - sorry to hear that!