Trolling motor question

[Crappie Reaper]

you might be able to take a regular 120 volt rheostat (like one used on a ceiling fan in a house) from Lowes and wire it inline with your trolling motor. I am sure it would work with 12 volt, the question is, how long would it last? I would bet money it would work just fine and would only cost a couple of bucks to find out. Don't trim your blade as you will need it for full power at times.

[jlaughlin72]

I wouldn't recomend trimming the prop down either, you may get into some wind and need it. I would recomend something like the Maximizer or a drift sock or two.(cost more than a bucket but store alot smaller).

[Bluegillfreak]

this is not trolling motor related (sorry) Would the buckets/drift socks work to slow down my 25 horse johnson ?

[LIL' Joe]

Drage a couple 5 gallon buckets behind you or get a Drift Sock.

http://www.charkbait.com/cs/csd_sea_anchors.htm

[CatFan]

The rheostat will drop the voltage to the motor and up the current. Can cause the motor to overheat. Trimming the prop can do the same thing.

[slabbandit]

I agree with CatFan, don't use a dimmer switch or anything like that. I hear you will burn your trolling motor up.
I had an electronics buddy of mine open up my Maximizer and he said it was pretty complicated what they were doing to reduce the power. It also has a large aluminum heat sink on the back so it must produce a lot of heat.

[CatFan]

The Maxximizer pulses the battery power on and off very rapidly to give variable speeds. The FETs that do the pulsing get very hot. That pulsing is the reason you sometimes get fishfinder interference with digital trolling motors.

[Cane Pole]

The Maxximizer pulses the battery power on and off very rapidly to give variable speeds. The FETs that do the pulsing get very hot. That pulsing is the reason you sometimes get fishfinder interference with digital trolling motors.

Somewhat. Biggest problem with RFI interference is tying the transducer wires to the TM battery cable (to make things look pretty) and another is running the sonar off the tm battery.