I've bought a JW Watersnake 54lb Venom SWX ,12 volt trolling motor and coupled it with a 120 A/H battery. (Should do the job)
I've looked at multiple installs with the trolling motor at the side and while it might be easier to clean weeds etc. off the prop, it seems an unwieldy way to have things set up.
I'm looking at having it at the rear, with the battery up in the front hatch to counter balance it.
On my wish list is:
Steering via the foot pedals, not to a rudder but directly to the motor. This is meant to give a better response.
Instead of the 5 forward/3 reverse that comes with the Venom I wanted a maximiser for the energy saving benefits and finer control that they give.
Capacity to fully remove the motor from the water when anchored/launching or not in use.
Reverse!... A bit trickier to achieve when coupled with being able to remove the motor from the water.
A kill switch!
I needed a transom to mount the motor... I had a Mark 1 Stainless steel rudder on my Reload. I've kept part of the mount and cut a 5mm Aluminium plate that bolts to the rudder mount
and every other bolt hole at the rear of the kayak...
With the obligatory ropes, I can deploy, withdraw and steer the motor.
To get the motor to deploy/retract, I had to remove the lock that normally sets the trim... I have cable tied the shaft in to the unlocked position.
That meant that reversing would have pulled the motor out of the water, not drag the kayak back... to overcome this, I have put in a rope (Green) that I pull tight to hold the shaft in position.
The steering is via the standard rudder pedals, I removed the bolt that held the collar that controls the depth setting and replaced it with a new bolt and 2 Rail Blaza knobs... I drilled out the knobs and fitted the rope that connects to the rudder controls.
The maximiser parts were mostly sourced from Ali-express. They are all rated for 100 Amps so I hope that they'll be OK for the 50 odd that is the motors supposed max draw.
I bypassed the standard controller to get it to work.
I wanted the controller to be attached to my PFD, where I could get to it readily and keep it away from the water as much as possible.
Kill switch, Forward/reverse ('cause I couldn't find a bi-direction pot) and speed/voltage adjust.)
Still to come... Circuit breaker, some straps to hold the battery inside the kayak when I turtle. Smooth the edges of the aluminium plate and paint it.
Some time to get out and try it out on the water.