DIY motor mount for Kayak

[Chuy]

Had a lot of trouble finding a trolling motor mount for my kayak.

Ocean Kayak Malibu XL two (tandem)

the only one i could find is made by bassyaks and is in the neighborhood of 500 bucks. So I decided to make my own.

Heres my inspiration


it will need to have a curve to accomodate this...


[/quote]

[Chuy]

yup. ok, i spent some time on this.

I purchased a few pieces of 16 ga steel, a dremel and went to work. Start cutting the angles to fit the contours of the kayak, then cut some flat support braces and bent them to fit the kayak contours. Had them welded together, drilled some holes, sanded the whole thing down real good and gave it a few good coats of rustoleum.

Spend the last few days doing detail work and making brackets for the motor steering, decided to just go with a premade plumbing assembly. Ill post pics later tonight.

Last night, i finally finished with the motor mounts and go them all riveted on. This is right after they were installed, looks a lot better today, now that the goop has dried and hardened.



Still have some work to do on the foot pedals,cables, electrical work on the motor, shortening motor shaft. but should have it all buttoned up in the next few days, if not tonight. Stay tuned..

[bearintex]

Public or private waters? If public, I believe you now have to register the kayak as a powered vessel and get TX numbers for it.

[Chuy]

sure do. Ill be taking it for registration when im finished.

[BlackHillRanch]

Good work so far

[Chuy]

Heres the steering clamp


and finally, the motor mounted, I had to add a piece of plastic between the motor mount and the bracket to tighten up the tolerances. Plastic apoxy works great! Made the shims out of a cutting board. Dont tell wifa

[Mofo]

Looks good, it's nice to be able to build things you need

[Chuy]

I cut the pipe down, added some marine goop and electrical taped it, then shrunk wrapped the wires. Going this afternoon to get the electrical connections and battery. Hopefully going to finish up in the next few days.

[BIG IRON]

Great idea

[Chuy]

Figured out how i am going to wire this thing. Built a carrier cart, and doing a lil more customizing for the backrest.

Will be finished tonight! Cant wait to hit the water Sat.

The battery just so happens to fit perfectly behind the seat.


Because the switch is such a weird size/shape, i had to go with something ugly. this might be temporary

[Chuy]

I finished it and had it registered Friday. Hit the water Saturday.......all day.

Had a blast, starting chasing reds in the morning in the flats. Have some issues to work out with the setup.

I was worried shot the aluminum steering rod but am happy that no bending occurred. Still may replace it thought.

I don't have enough leg room so I am going to rearrange some stuff to make some room.

All in all, it ran great!

Some pics..



To whoever lost this leader...thanks for the free keeper red


Battery goes here..

[CarbonFlinger]

nice rig!!!

[altabonita]

Very nice.