Transom Trolling Motor

I am thinking about getting a transom mount trolling motor for my Alumacraft magnum 165 tiller. Thought it might be handy to have a transom mount to deploy instead of putting my bow mount down all the time. Thinking about a 24 volt motor. My bow mount is 70lb thrust, figure that might be enough for the transom.
Would use it to stay close to brush piles or structure, so I can stay in the back of the boat by the depth finder’s.
Any thoughts or suggestions ?
Thanks

I would highly recommend the Traxis series from MinnKota. I have owned a couple of them over the years and would not buy an Endura again. The Vantage is very nice too but comes at 3 times the cost and gives some trouble at times. All that said I do know a guy that put a powerdrive I pilot on the back of the boat just so he had spot lock feature. Works well, but looks odd.

I think there was a post awhile back that Minnkota was going to discontinue the Vantage.

Unless you are back-trolling I think you’d be better off upgrading the bow-mount but that’s just me.

In terms of power you need more thrust to push the boat (transom) than to pull it (bow). 70lb could still be adequate, but just keep this in mind.

MX1825 wrote:

I think there was a post awhile back that Minnkota was going to discontinue the Vantage.

The vantage is discontinued, but Reeds had a pile of them at the Minneapolis boat show if anyone is in need of one. One of the Reeds guys said they stockpiled a bunch of them when they got word they were going away.

Mike,
Let me share something I use with my transom TM’s over the years. Even with the metal clamp mounts, these things can “walk”. Years ago, Minn-Kota used to offer a plastic plate that would attach to the transom, and the pads would fit into shallow recesses. I’ve adapted that to a piece of Starboard that fits snugly in the area between the splashwell and the top cap, with a pair of recesses formed by using a Forstner bit (for you woodworkers).

Keeps the TM in place, and no damage to the paint.

HRG

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I sometimes fish lakes that do not allow gas motors, having a tm motor to load the boat onto the trailer would be an advatage.