If the boat were an aluminum rig I would say the 24 volt is plenty. However, any glass rig 18ft+ needs a 36 volt system. You can NEVER have too much TM. Never.

I'll sell you a used Minn Kota Maxxum 101 36 volt for $300 new steering cables and pull rope. Go to Wally World get some new batteries and you will have plenty of power.

hot damn. If you have it in a couple weeks then I'll grab that from you. Cant do anything today though, I'm out of state for a bit.

I have a Minn Kota 101 on my 17.5 ft boat. It came with a one battery 55 Minn Kota but I would kill the battery. I put a second battery in parallel and soon upgraded to a to a 74lb Minn Kota. When the opportunity came along to upgrade again I went to a 101lb. I get about 3.5 mph on the gps on high. Ain't no such thing as too much trolling motor.

Thank everyone for the feedback!
Also, I'm not all about speed, mostly just enough power to go through the wind. Hopefully me and Reinke can make a deal soon! and I guess, if I spend the money now, when i sell the boat I can just put the current TM back on there. I dont plan to get much for the boat maybe $4000-$5000, because it can go pretty damn quick. (75ish if youre alone and the weather is right)

I have a MK Edge 70 on my 18ft Ranger and love it!

I have a similar size and style boat with a Minn Kota Edge 55, and it is not powerful enough. I'll be upgrading for sure. I have access to a Maxxum 65, but I'd like to know that will be powerful enough before swapping them out. I'm not so sure it will be.

70 will be plenty 80 would be nice but not needed. 36v on that size rig is nuts you're going to add a ton of weight to the boat then you gotta find room for three batteries and a three or four bank charger which is also very heavy. Probably talking hundreds of pounds there. I like the longer shaft tm's if it gets real nasty you wont be blowing the prop out over every wave.

You would do well with a 36v or 24v Minn Kota or Motorguide whatever you can find. I do have a question. You said that the prop was facing away from the boat to go forward. I'm wondering if you are running the TM in reverse rather than forward thrust. This would cause a serious power loss. Also, if you are running in forward with the prop out in front that means that your battery is hooked up backwards.. They are just DC motors.. hooked to a battery one way it spins one way and will spin the other way when you switch the wires on the battery..

Just checking you might look at that before spending anything. That is an older boat and it worked for quite some time with that TM before.

Jody

Yeah I re-read that sounds like the previous owner had it on right and you reversed the head back to the transom mount.
Prop should be facing the same way your big motors is.

the tm that came with it did not work. i bought a new one which was apparently a transom one but came with a bow mount, had i not moved the handle i would have to use reverse to go forward.

That Makes more sense. Sorry, that wasn't clear in the original post. Logic is sometimes wrong.. LOL
Hope you find a TM that will work for you. I would get a 24v 80 - 82 lb thrust for that boat.

Good Luck


Jody

I'll have to respectfully disagree with that. I have an 18.6' Triton (TR186) and I have a 24V, 82 lb Motorguide and it has plenty of power. He can get a 5 speed for probably not too much $$, even a used one. John with jonestrollingmotors could probably help him out, and give good unbiased information.

I just purchased this one a few weeks ago. Its working out great so for for my 19' Sprint.

Its a 24V / 65 thrust. I run it on setting #2 or #3 most of the time and rarely #4 in wind. #5 is pulling the boat all over the place and is almost uncontrollable. Im pretty sure this particular model is a BPS exclusive and is $500. It is not listed on Minn Kota website.

http://www.basspro.com/Minn-Kota-Edge-65/45-FootControl-BowMount-Trolling-Motor/product/1311141532/


The 70lb /24 V is $630 w/ a $70 mail in rebate through June 1. making it $560.

I couldn't justify paying $130 more upfront for the additional (5)lbs of thrust.

I would put a 80 or 82 on it. You won't regret it