Re: Horsepower/thrust
I'm gonna go right down to the barn and give my little 3.5 Rude a Hug, and tell him he's equal to Seven 30# electrics!
It'l make him feel like a Turbo on Steroids.
The Electrics are only held back by the batteries. If we had a little on-board Battery charger....??
Electrics are also held back by weight as well as their batteries. An electric motor which could make any serious sustained power would be pretty heavy. That combined with several lead acid batteries, you have more weight than a comparable gas engine.
One thing about trolling motors is that they don't often offer different props, they are sold as a fixed package, with no regard to boat weight. Their efficiency could be greatly improved if the prop pitch was selectable.
I ran a 3hp Minnkota for years on a small 11' plastic pontoon boat, one of those two man bass boats. The motor would run all weekend on two batteries run parallel. But what I later found after my 3hp died, was that I could achieve pretty much the same performance pushing that brick through the water with the smallest trolling motor as well and get even more battery life.
Since I wan't fighting any current, the only force I had to overcome was weight and water resistance, which was high. Both the 3hp and the 24lb thrust motor turned about the same RPM, both had similar pitched props. The smaller motor had a smaller prop so it created less draw on the batteries. I could run all week without a charge with the smaller motor. But if I got into strong current, the little motor was about worthless, while the 3hp would keep pushing the boat. The difference was prop size and the ability to move more water. The right answer turned out to be a 31 lb thrust motor which gave me good battery life and plenty of power.
Back to the original subject posed by Rodburner, if he's fishing freshwater lakes, then I don't see much choice other than a trolling motor.
A bow mount will pull a boat better than a transom mount, it goes back to the old adage that it's easier to pull a load than to push it.
The thrust rating will be in the same category as what he had, maybe a bit less would do the job since motors are a bit improved over the years.
It would be my feeling that a gas motor would be just too noisy for trolling purposes when fishing a smaller lake.
On the original motor problem, for one, does the prop turn freely when the motor is off?
It's rare to loose high speed, especially on a Motorguide with speed coils.
If you can access the motor's wiring, applying full power to the red and black wires should give you full speed. Do this with the motor leads isolated from the rest of the circuit.
If the motor will turn full speed that way then the problem is in the controller, if not, the motor much be opened up to see whats up. Water intrusion is the number one cause of problems.
