Hello All, Wife bought me much drooled over patiently waited for upgrade to my 10yr old float tube...A Colorado XT. Not too fancy but not too pricey either. WOULD like the advent of a trolling motor. What do you guys recommend for an affordable option?? Thanks BJ
I am a strong minn kota fan. Their Endura 30 lb thrust motors are the shit. Cheap too, check 'em out. http://www.cabelas.com/transom-moun...-58CB-DF11-9B0F-002219318F67&mr:referralID=NA
As stated the Endura 30 in a short shaft is ideal for a pontoon boat. Buy the deep cycle wheelchair battery to power it. The battery will power the toon for many hours and is about 1/3 the size and weight of the regular deep cell 12 volt batteries. Be sure to get a quality deep cell charger no matter what battery you buy. Modern chargers are really easy on batteries and allow the batteries to be charged several hundred times over the course of their lives. Minn Kota also makes an excellent charger that will compliment your motor nicely. Ive
Another vote for the MinnKota 30/30 I see your in Graham so Cabelas is probably closest for you. Check them online...they are having a spring sale so you might save $ on either the motor or shipping charges. Here is a great spot to buy batteries: http://www.batteryspec.com/indexn.html another member posted it last year and I got everything from them. What they charge in shipping is a push compared to sales tax. Ive is dead on about the wheel chair batteries, exactly what I bought[4 of them, but small!] you want the "TD' series. They are not 'deep cycle' in the proper sense[like an RV battery from Shucks], they are better! They are SLA/AGM batteries...different terms for the exact same battery: "Sealed Lead Acid/Absorbed Glass Mat". Anyway, these guys are hard to beat. Plus they will hook you up with the RIGHT charger to use, no sense wasting $ on a charger thats larger than you need: a 3 or 5 amp 3 stage charger is plenty. You can decide on total amperage needed, space available[1 or 2 batteries] and total weight that you want to carry. One battery makes it easy, but if I had a pontoon I would probably get 2 smaller batteries...one for each side. Funny thing: the formula for amps/weight is about 1.4 to 1 no matter what size you get: the batteries I bought are 14 amps and weigh just under 10 pounds and they are small...4x4x6" perfect for the space I had. Hope some of this BS makes sense to you!
I have one that I would be willing to part with if your interested. (Minkota 40lb thrust I think, w/ battery).
