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Thread: Boat Control

  1. #1
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    Default Boat Control


    I've been "Hovering" over brushpiles or crappie condos for 25-years and always wished I could control the back of my boat as well as the front of the boat. I have a 22-foot Center Console Bay Boat and for crappie fishing we all fish out of the right side of the boat so the ones towards the back end up fishing "used water" a lot of the time. Also, if there is very much wind the back of the boat gets either blown over the cover or too far away from it and the front two or three poles are the only ones really fishing where they need to be. I've looked into Stern Thrusters but they are expensive and really intended for larger boats.

    What I ended up with is a 45-pound Thrust MinnKota Riptide Transom Mounted Trolling Motor turned sideways so that when it runs in "forward" it pushes the back of the boat to the left and when it runs in "reverse" it pushes the back of the boat to the right.


    CanePole lined me out on how to wire it up so I can operate it from the front deck with foot switches while also operating my front trolling motor, which is a Hand Control 80-pound Thrust Riptide with a foot switch for turning it on.


    The switch on the left controls the front TM and the other two control the back TM.

    Each foot switch for the back TM energizes a different two-pole relay so when the front switch is pressed it turns the TM on in forward (pushing the stern to the right) and when the back foot switch is pressed it turns the TM on with reversed polarity, which makes it turn the opposite direction (pushing the stern to the left).

    I have the TM turned on at the handle - usually on "speed" 4 out of 5 unless the wind is up. I operate the TM in short bursts just like I do my front TM and I can operate the front TM switch with my heel while I press either of the other switches with my toe, depending on which way I want the back of the boat to move or to stop it from moving when it gets where I want it. I can operate both trolling motors at the same time to move the boat sideways to bring everyone up to the cover at the same time or turn it on a dime if the wind changes direction.

    It comes in real handy when fishing around lay-downs or other shallow cover because I can bring the boat in sideways and back in if I need to. And it allows me to circle a brushpile or condo even if there is some wind because I can keep the back from blowing over the cover when we get to the upwind side and keep it from getting blown away from the cover when we're on the downwind side.

    Since TM props are designed to be much more efficient going forward than in reverse I took a second prop and bolted it to the face of the original prop so there is always one prop working properly and I can push the back of the boat in either direction with the same amount of thrust. I cut the middle of the second prop out with a hole-saw for access to the prop-mounting nut.


    Now I finally feel like I have total boat control and the wind can't push me around like it used to.

    Here's Tom's wring diagram if anyone is interested:


    Thanks Tom!!
    FISH ON!
    Jerry Blake

    www.BLAKETOURS.com

  2. #2
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    Thats pretty dadgummed neat. Thanks for sharing that.
    I have spent most my life fishing........the rest I wasted.
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  3. #3
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    I hadn't thought about that, I like the idea, thanks for sharing.

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    Quote Originally Posted by G-3 Fisherman View Post
    Thats pretty dadgummed neat. Thanks for sharing that.
    sure is 2X, you and that Cane guy are some pretty sharp fishermen
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  5. #5
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    This is getting crazy. I have 6 seat bases, 16 rod holders, 3GPSs, 2 depth finders, and other assorted stuff. Now you come up with something else that I need.:D:D

    This is thinking outside of the box.
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  6. #6
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    Great set up and real good post on how you put it together. Nicely done!!
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  7. #7
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    KK, definitely outside the box. I said in another post last week that in thinking like this, there's no tellin where you'll wind up. This is a perfect example. Great work Gentlemen. The double prop idea is vert neat indeed.
    Creativity is just intelligence fooling around

  8. #8
    gabowman is offline Super Moderator * Crappie.com Supporter
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    Pretty neat. I bet there's others wanting to do the same thing and you guys have given 'em what they need. Thanks for sharing.
    Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

  9. #9
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    Glad it worked out Jerry. Do you get much turbulence with the blades bucking each other?
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  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cane Pole View Post
    Glad it worked out Jerry. Do you get much turbulence with the blades bucking each other?
    No, none at all. They are really both pushing the same direction but one is pushing off the concave face of the blades and the other is pushing off the convex back of the blades. It's really just a four-blade prop except two of the blades aren't very efficient but it's the same whether running clockwise or counter clockwise. Since I'm only reversing polarity to go the other direction the motor turns the same RPMs both ways.

    It pushes a little better to the right than the left because the big motor is somewhat in the way when it's pushing left. But I lower the big motor all the way down and turn it all the way to the right so it's not in the way much. I get a slight forward push, especially when I'm moving the back to the left because the prop-wash is hitting the big motor at an angle but that's usually the direction I want to go anyway. If I want to slide the whole boat without going forward I just angle the front TM a bit towards the back to compensate.

    I was concerned that I'd forget to raise my "Thruster" but if I take off without raising it, it comes up from the water pressure because it has MinnKota's "One-Hand Stow" feature. I do have to be careful not to make a hard left turn with the big motor while the Thruster is down or the prop bumps it. If I had more room I would have put it farther away from the big motor but it's working well where it's at. I don't use it all the time. If there's no wind and I only have two people fishing with me I don't need it much at all.

    I'm powering it off the starting battery for my big motor, which is under the deck right under the TM. I don't think I'll every use it enough to run the battery down so much that it won't start the big motor. It's a 29-series Deep Cycle battery and I usually run the big motor every 45-minutes or so anyway. It has a 54-amp alternator so it charges it back up pretty fast and the big motor starts when you reach for the key so it doesn't draw much. I have all my other accessories - aerators, lights, graphs and GPS units on a separate battery.
    FISH ON!
    Jerry Blake

    www.BLAKETOURS.com

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