# No paddle, No peddle, no problem!!!



## Disco (Aug 21, 2013)

My buddy and I have been fishing and spearfishing out of kayaks for a couple years now. We have always said how cool it would be to have a trolling motor powered kayak soooooooooooo, we did it!!! 

We had seen the bassyaks kits online for $500 or whatever they cost and neither one of us wanted to spend that kind of dough on something we weren't even sure that we would like. I enjoy paddling my kayak just as much as the next guy when the water is nice and I dont plan on covering mile after mile lol. But an electric motor sounds awfully easy and gives total hands free fishing .

I posted up a thread on here looking to buy a used trolling motor and got one for $30 from a member. My kayak already had a rudder set up on it so the steering was almost completely done for me other than fabricating a bracket on the trolling motor to hook my steering cables to. Believe it or not the steering bracket was the hardest part of the project. I removed the rudder and found a small length of eighth inch thick galvanized rectangular tubing from an old trailer project that was just sitting in my scrap pile. So out came the tape measures, sharpies, welder, grinder, drill, and compound miter saw.

I love my kayak its an Ocean Kayak Trident 15 in very good shape for all the hell its been put through. So I did not want to drill any holes in my boat that weren't already there so using all the factory mounting locations was very important to me. From what I can tell the only hole I am going to have to drill in the actual kayak will be so that I have a super clean finish on the speed control knob install.

Long story short I welded cut and modified for a day and a half and bingo I have a trolling motor driven kayak for a grand total of around $80 including the 17lb thrust trolling motor lol!!!! I took it out tonight for its test run before I finalized my wiring and a few other odds and ends and it worked flawlessly. I didnt even have a proper battery tonight I just hooked it up to a battery jump box used to jump start cars lol. But i got some good news after the test that a buddy of mine is giving me a free deep cycle battery for the kayak!!!! Gotta love good friends!!!!:thumbup: During the test I turned on my gps/finder and watched the speed. Now remember its an ancient 17lb thrust motor but it had me up to a blistering 3.6mph. Combine some relaxed paddling and she was instantly up to 5+ mph!!!!! 

I cant wait to try trolling out of it!!! And if the little 17lb motor gets to be too slow ill drop the $100 on a 30lb motor and probably nearly double my speed. I built the whole set up so the motor is very easily detachable. So if i want to fish normal without the motor its a two minute job to remove it. And upgrading to a bigger motor will be a snap.:thumbsup:

Disco


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## foreverfishing (Nov 30, 2012)

dude that's awesome!! post pics if you got some. I wish I could do that to my yak... it probably couldn't handle the weight... haha


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## aquatic argobull (Mar 2, 2009)

Pics and video please! Sounds cool


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## Cant.Git.Enuf (Jan 21, 2013)

Standing by for pics


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## jspooney (Oct 2, 2007)

Cant.Git.Enuf said:


> Standing by for pics


Same here


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## Foulhook (Apr 26, 2010)

I think you may have to register it now that it is motor driven? Just the same, sounds like a cool project. Can you post any pics?


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## Randy M (Jul 8, 2012)

Have you figured out how hard it is to paddle with the trolling motor on if it breaks down, or have you devised a way to quickly/easily remove the trolling motor?

Just in case you didn't know, once you install a trolling motor the kayak has to be registered and licensed.


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## jasoncooperpcola (Jan 2, 2008)

My buddy just installed a trollong motor on his Ascend FS128T. Not sure on size but halfspeed is average pedalling on the Mariner. He likes it but has to move his battery off the bow. And he custom built everything except the control box. 

Post up some pics and hopefully you like it. And yes he has his registered now.


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## Disco (Aug 21, 2013)

I honestly thought I was going to get super flamed by the die hard yakers for the trolling motor!!! LOL I guess I was wrong ha ha. I was sure I was going to hear about how its cheating and im going to kill myself on the prop ha ha ha ha!!! Thanks guys

Someone asked about removing the motor if it breaks down. I retained all the normal working features of a regular trolling motor so all I will have to do is either crawl my but back there and press the tilt button or devise another rope activated lever that will press the button for me while still in my seat. If I could press the release button for the tilt and push both steering pedals forward it should lift the trolling motor completely out of the water. Or like my buddy said earlier tonight we could just back up to one anothers yaks and press the buttons for each other.

Yup you guys are all correct! I am getting the kayak registered. It just so happens that my wife works at the Tax collector/DMV so she looked up all the procedures and got all the necessary paperwork for me to complete the project and be 100% legal. 

As far as pics go ill see if I can upload some from the build process. I took a few but all during the fab process so they will all look kinda rough. When I took it out tonight my buddy was kinda snickering about how ghetto my wiring, battery and switch were but I fabricate all the time and I am a full time mechanic for a living. So I understand the importance of mocking things up and testing them before they are all wrapped up painted and pretty. Most of the time things have to come back apart for modifications to improve on the final product. Like I knew that the steering bracket was going to be the real critical piece of the project so I just made it out of some random scrap laying around so as not to waste good steel that will most likely become the final parts. 

Let me tell you that all ive ever had are paddle kayaks so not having the paddle in my hands and moving through the water at 3+ mph is a very weird feeling lol. I guess it would be like tight rope walking with a pole for years then doing it without. Very uneasy for the first two seconds.

Ok there she is with the rudder.


Now off with the rudder and starting to fab the bracket to mount up the motor. I used some pretty big rectangular tubing to make all of the bracket. The tubing was way too big to clamp the trolling motor bracket to so I had to cut a section out if it and re weld it back together smaller. All the pieces of this bracket are made from the same rectangular tubing. Mt buddy does powder coating so thats the protection itll get when I finalize it.



Heres my little buddy helping daddy out!!! Hes a stickler for perfection, he worked on that hair for hours!!!


Heres the blistering fast 17lb thrust ancient motor clamped on for a test fit. It is crazy how sturdy it is. Yup thats a bunch of my tools just laying in the dirt lol. I have no shop or garage here at the house so all my work ends up getting done on the back porch. I gotta do what I gotta do right.



Ok now here is where the poo hit the fan. The steering bracket looks simple but its really not. Why? Because I wanted to retain all the functions of a stock trolling motor like the tilt function and the lift up and down features. All of the little twist locks still do their jobs and the motor can be tilted up with the press of a button. No I cannot tilt the motor from my seat in the kayak but im working on that. Also I wanted the geometry in the steering cables to stay the same as if they were still hooked up to a rudder so thats why you see two carabiners connecting the cable to the bracket. I plan on building a solid bracket with more length and bend on the ends to eliminate one of the carabiners. <<<< I have no idea how to spell lol



And i had to add a hatch to the yak so that when I do finalize the wiring and switch all my wiring can be ran with ease through the inside of the hull using some kind of bulkhead fittings. I needed a hatch there anyways instead of the plate that was there. Small things end up back there all the time and its tough to fish them out without lifting the 15ft kayak over your head.



And finally here is how I ghetto rigged the wiring, jump box, and switch unit for testing purposes only. Yup its not pretty but it worked and let me know that now I need to concentrate on a good clean battery and wiring install, make a few tweaks and she will be done for now. I just tucked the switch and wiring into the pouch on my seat back and strapped in the jump box for the initial wet test.



Once its all disassembled cleaned and powder coated itll look much more professional and ill post up more pics then. I missed this whole weekend of fishing so I could get this mocked up. Now this week ive got to try and buckle down and finalize the project between all my other side jobs and Daddy duties.


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