Balancing the weight in my boat with the new stuff. Suggestions?

[ngt]

Right now, my 12ft Aluminum boat has the majority of the weight in the back. 9.8 Tohatsu 4 stroke, tiller, so I'm back there too. Little trolling motor, gas tank, little fish finder, and the battery. Only thing in the front is the anchor. I recently purchased a riptide st iPilot link setup and a humminbird 898c hd si combo. Should be here on Tuesday/Wednesday. I'm currently using one marine battery, but my friend Steve gave me two nicer batteries and I'd like to get them both in there for trolling. Not sure how to get this stuff in there and safely balance the boat. Batteries both in the back where they are is going to be a big addition in weight to the back. I don't know how much the trolling motor will balance that in the front. Not sure if the two batteries in the front would make the boat to front heavy when I get on plane or when I'm sitting on the middle bench while fishing. I'm also going to add in another couple of seats, but that's not much. Suggestions? Somewhat new to boats in general, and installing this type of stuff, is definitely a first for me.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Balancing the weight in my boat with the new stuff. Suggestions?

Right now, my 12ft Aluminum boat has the majority of the weight in the back. 9.8 Tohatsu 4 stroke, tiller, so I'm back there too. Little trolling motor, gas tank, little fish finder, and the battery. Only thing in the front is the anchor. I recently purchased a riptide st iPilot link setup and a humminbird 898c hd si combo. Should be here on Tuesday/Wednesday. I'm currently using one marine battery, but my friend Steve gave me two nicer batteries and I'd like to get them both in there for trolling. Not sure how to get this stuff in there and safely balance the boat. Batteries both in the back where they are is going to be a big addition in weight to the back. I don't know how much the trolling motor will balance that in the front. Not sure if the two batteries in the front would make the boat to front heavy when I get on plane or when I'm sitting on the middle bench while fishing. I'm also going to add in another couple of seats, but that's not much. Suggestions? Somewhat new to boats in general, and installing this type of stuff, is definitely a first for me.

Ayuh,.... Sounds like yer tryin' to pack 10 lbs of Poo, into a 5 lb sack....

It's a tiny 12' tinny,...
Ya don't need 2 motors on it, muchless 3 batteries....

 

[ziggy]

Re: Balancing the weight in my boat with the new stuff. Suggestions?

sounds like a lot of stuff in a pretty small boat. hopefully ya got a certification plate on the boat so ya know what it's max. capacity is. ya don't want to go over weight cap.
i'd think try to center the weight.
add up the weight of yer gear individually. then start distributing gear to initially compensate for your weight and the o/b's weight. maybe consider moving the fuel tank into the equation too imho. it can have a long fuel line and be moved fwd of aft too. .
then go for a test drive. see how the boat handles. move gear around co compensate for the best trim (best attitude of the boat) ya can have under speed with that amount of load.

 

[64osby]

Re: Balancing the weight in my boat with the new stuff. Suggestions?

A picture of the bow set up of the boat might help.

The trolling motor on the bow would do little to offset the weight of two batteries in the stern.

Are you going to have 2 or 3 batteries in the boat? Is the 9.8 electric start? Are you looking to use both batteries to run the trolling motor, 12 in series or 24 volt? Is this strictly a one person fishing boat?

I would look to have the batteries up front. Less wire to the trolling motor and the weight will offset what you already have in the boat. You may have to play with the weight distribution a little to balance the boat.

 

[smokeonthewater]

Re: Balancing the weight in my boat with the new stuff. Suggestions?

You need a bigger boat or less junk aboard

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Balancing the weight in my boat with the new stuff. Suggestions?

That 12'er is going to be very sensitive to weight distribution and you'll need to move weight mid-ship, fuel tank, batteries, etc.

How long are you going to be out fishing, what is the voltage of the trolling motor and what size are the batteries? If you don't need 2 batteries, don't put them in the boat. I think you'll be very surprised on how long that digital TM will run before the battery(s) need to be re-charged. I have 2- group 29 batteries in my 14' boat with a 24V TM and trolled for 12+ hours yesterday, the batteries still had plenty of power left in them, battery meter on TM showed 50%.

Take the boat out and move things around too see where the weight needs to be located, for best performance.

 

[airshot]

Re: Balancing the weight in my boat with the new stuff. Suggestions?

Many years back I had a similiar boat, used a large group 27 trolling battery and it would last all day with ease. Made a cross bench parrallel to the center seat and mounted battery and fuel tank on bench with a top that was flush with the cross seat in the boat. In other words you made the center seat wider, adding the width toward the front side of the center seat. I mounted a pedastal seat on this unit to fish from when by myself. Only thing in the back was drive motor and elec troller and me when motoring along. Anchor and other accessories (fire exting, etc) were in the front, even built a small locker in front of the front seat to store anchor and access. This setup balanced my 12 very well even when two persons were in the boat (one driving and one in center seat). As many others have already stated take what you need and only what you need and leave the rest at home...save weight...you need it on a 12 footer.

Airshot

 

[roscoe]

Re: Balancing the weight in my boat with the new stuff. Suggestions?

Hmmm, my thoughts were buy a cheaper troller, and cheaper sonar, and put the $1000 toward a bigger boat.

 

[crabby captain john]

Re: Balancing the weight in my boat with the new stuff. Suggestions?

Back in the early 80s I bought a new 14' Sylvan outfit. I tried stuffing all that stuff in it.... named her "BIG Mistake". Think "17' or 18'"....

 

[ngt]

Re: Balancing the weight in my boat with the new stuff. Suggestions?

double post

 

[ngt]

Re: Balancing the weight in my boat with the new stuff. Suggestions?

Here's the battery and boat. It's pretty sturdy for a 12ft. 700 lbs w/ motor. Deep-V etc...Hoping to have two people on it, but most of the time I will be solo. Do you think one of these batteries would be enough? I don't see myself doing any 12 hour trolling trips, but 6-7 with room to spare for emergencies would be nice. My Tohatsu is pull start. I'd remove the little trolling motor from the back, but that doesn't weigh much anyways. It was either spend the money on a bigger boat, or get really good equipment. I went with equipment and the 14-15 alum will come later. But, I want to get it on this boat and enjoy it until a bigger boat in my price range comes along.

 

[crabby captain john]

Re: Balancing the weight in my boat with the new stuff. Suggestions?

1st I'd consider putting a battery under the middle or front seat--

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Balancing the weight in my boat with the new stuff. Suggestions?

That battery is only 38#,,, and only 120 RC. I'd put both of them in the boat. The batteries in my 14' jon boat I was referring to are about 65# with 210 RC, each.

If you plan to use the TM attached to the stern [looks to be an ol' speed coil (non-digital) TM], you won't get much trolling time with those 2 batteries, I'll throw out a swag of 5-6 hours. The Riptide you mentioned will realistically go 2-3 times longer.

 

[airshot]

Re: Balancing the weight in my boat with the new stuff. Suggestions?

Looks very similiar to the boat I posted about earlier, make the space usable in front of that middle seat for your fuel tank and batteries. That will get your weight out from the back and more toward the center.

Airshot

 

[ngt]

Re: Balancing the weight in my boat with the new stuff. Suggestions?

That battery is only 38#,,, and only 120 RC. I'd put both of them in the boat. The batteries in my 14' jon boat I was referring to are about 65# with 210 RC, each.

If you plan to use the TM attached to the stern [looks to be an ol' speed coil (non-digital) TM], you won't get much trolling time with those 2 batteries, I'll throw out a swag of 5-6 hours. The Riptide you mentioned will realistically go 2-3 times longer.

I'm ditching the stern mounted TM completely. It's a little 24lb motor guide stealth. The benches are all stuffed with styro and don't open. So are you saying that one of those batteries, with the riptide, might get me 6 hours of trolling? If two would get 5-6 and the riptide gets 2-3 times that? that would be enough for me. How much will the Humminbird 898c suck a good amount of time off of that total?

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Balancing the weight in my boat with the new stuff. Suggestions?

So are you saying that one of those batteries, with the riptide, might get me 6 hours of trolling? If two would get 5-6 and the riptide gets 2-3 times that? that would be enough for me. How much will the Humminbird 898c suck a good amount of time off of that total?

Wide open a 55# riptide will get 2+ hours on one of those batteries, 1/2 power 4+ hours, 1/4 power about 9 hours, it really depends on what speed you're running,,, how fast you need to move to get your gear running properly. I usually troll 1/3 speed, so yeah, about 5-6 hours would be my best guess for 1 of those batteries.

I doubt the sonar is going to use significant power, you could run the sonar all day on what the trolling motor used in 1 minute....

 

[ngt]

Re: Balancing the weight in my boat with the new stuff. Suggestions?

I don't think I'll be going wide open much. This boat is pretty light. One use will be spot locking on a few local rivers for fly fishing, so I guess that will vary. Maybe I'll try with just one and see how it goes. That way, I'm really just adding the trolling motor, switches, some wiring, etc. up front and removing a smaller trolling motor from the back. The humming bird can't weight that much. If it's not enough for a trip out than I'll add another one.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Balancing the weight in my boat with the new stuff. Suggestions?

Check out this place for your wiring.

Personally, myself, I'd figure out how things need to be setup with both batteries, then only take 1 if needed. (I've had to end fishing trips because I ran out of battery, sux...) You might even find that the extra weight up front (mid-ship?), might make the boat plane/ride better. Try it and see what works best to balance out the boat.