Best Motor for Trolling

[timsheehan]

Hello,

I have an aluminum 1988 Starcraft SFM160 in really great shape with a Johnson 48 SPL motor, same year I think. Appearance of motor is excellent. I've had problems lately with the idling after trolling a while. Plugs look like they're getting oily. I've changed the gas line recently, cleaned the filter screen, hooked it to a portable tank instead of inboard tank, rebuilt the carbs (even though after using it for 10 years they looked clean as a whistle when I took them apart), put gas dryer in the built-in tank (even though gas was treated before wintering), put in new plugs, and read the heck out of these forums. One last thing is to go through the carb adjustment procedure in the top secret file but the advice is for a v-4 engine or a single carb engine and as clean as the carbs were I'm not sure mine needed adjusting, so I haven't gone there yet.

So my question is two fold, should I keep this engine because you know it can be fixed to troll trouble free and your advise is...... or if trolling is important then consider buying a new motor of which you can advise me which make and model was designed to run trouble free for trolling. I think I'll stick to the 50 HP range if new is what is recommended.

Thanks for any advice given....TIM

 

[marquette]

Re: Best Motor for Trolling

i can't answer your question about how to get your motor to troll better but i can tell you i had a 40hp Yamaha on a 16 ft lund i couldn't get to troll. i don't think there was anything wrong witht the motor just not enough boat or too much motor. if i bumped the throttle up to about 800rpm i was ok but at 600rpm it would load up run rough and die. so i swapped it for a 30hp honda not realizing how well a 4 stroke will troll. my thinking on a 30hp was that a smaller motor i could bump up the rpm and then it would troll. so if you decide to go with a new motor stay with a 50hp. a new 50hp 4 stroke will troll and you will still have the top end speed. a 30 hp underpowers my boat with 3-4 people. it's ok with 1-2 people. i now think if i had gone from a 40hp 2 stroke to a 40 hp 4 stroke i would have solved my trolling problem and not have underpowerd my boat. i know a lot of people say 4 strokes need to much maintaince, no hole shot and are heavy but trolling is their forte. you never hear anybody say that they don't like a 4 stroke because it won't troll.

 

[rndn]

Re: Best Motor for Trolling

Something else to think about is I always use my bow mounted electric motor for all of my trolling needs. It trolls for several hours at any speed I want with no troubles. I typically point it straight and steer with my main motor. I have a Minn Kota power drive so I can control the bow mount from anywhere on my 20 foot boat. I have a 55# thrust motor and on 1 deep cycle battery I have trolled for 6 hours straight and still showed a 50% reserve.