I need an electric powertrain suggestion for a prospective Jon boat...?

Steveston Marine sell a badass electric outboard - a real motor, not a low-power troller. So they do exist.

Forget the solar panel unless you are going to sit in the sun for days. Take some paddles, or better yet some sweeps and rowlocks so you can row the thing effectively. And/or take a spare battery that will get you back from wherever the first battery got you.

If you are ever going in salt water, get a saltwater rated motor. The Minn-Kota ones rust out in a few days (at least cosmetically).

I have a 12ft catamaran that goes quite well (faster than I can paddle) with a Minn-Kota dialled all the way up. At that speed, a 120Ah battery lasts maybe an hour. I don't have sweeps as it's a ship's tender not an explorer, but one time when the battery died I had to paddle like hell just to stay still in only a moderate current.

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I need an electric powertrain suggestion for a prospective Jon boat...?

So I am looking at picking up a jon boat this year for fishing. It'll be a cheap riveted model, anywhere from 12-15' length. My lakes don't allow gas, so I'll be using an electric only setup, and need to figure out a power system. I figure for a cheap setup, I can use a 12v...

Hey A..Adaviel has some points about trolling motors. The Minnkotas rust quick in saltwater. I think you are looking at some of this the wrong way. My son has a 14 foot Smokercraft with an electric drive so he can get into the small motorless lakes too. You said more weight means more horsepower required, but you'll be fighting the wind. First with an electric drive, your boat speed is not going to be high enough to plane out. Even if you used a "torquedo" electric 10 HP motor, any battery would last maybe 15 minutes at the burn rate they have. With our 55 pound thrust motor, our boat easily travels as fast as I can jog along the beach, but well below hull speed, which means the boat actually stays down in the water, away from the wind, which is where you want it. A heavier battery will actually give you more endurance, and move the boat slightly lower in the water. Each additional inch of draft takes more hull out of the wind, but more importantly adds tremendous keel moment to your course, so the boat does not tend to weathervane up into the wind, and does not make as much lee way, or side slip in a cross wind.

What we did was build a wooden battery box that holds 2 golf cart batteries, specifically Trojan T-105 model batteries. These are easy to find in any golf cart repair place, and you need a pair because they are 6 volts each. Wire them in series for 12 volts, you just need a jumper wire from the + of one battery to the - of the other, then the two remaining posts are your 12 volt battery output. These batteries wired in series give you 220 amp hours (AH) of storage, and add 165 pounds of weight to the boat. By installing your battery box as near the center of the boat as possible, it will also be much more stable when you stand up to cast or reel fish, and net them along side the boat. One of our neighbors who has been fishing for 40 years thought our electric setup was crazy until he went out in it once, now he wants to borrow it all the time. It's much more stable in the wind and waves and stays on course better than any lighter weight boat, and that huge battery bank can carry the boat, electronics, under water lights and everything much longer than anyone elses. And because those batteries are specifically designed to take much more frequent and deeper discharges on a daily basis than the ones at the marine store, they last for years.

We can get an entire afternoon and part of the evening trolling and lighting with a pair of those batteries with our 55 # motor, you just can't waterski behind it. To balance the boat correctly, we mounted the battery box just ahead of the center bench seat, and a couple inches to the left of center, this counterbalances the driver sitting in the aft right corner so with one person, the boat carves perfectly straight and has no list under full power. Add a couple cigarette ligher outlets to the battery box for hand held spotlights, cell phone chargers, and so on. Good luck Anonymous, and take care ,Rudydoo

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