Best trolling motor

[TREVOR20228]

I'm looking at getting a terrova 112 for my 16 foot boat I was wondering if that is too big of a trolling motor for that boat.

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[tbone1993]

Does your boat have room for that many batteries? 112lb is going to take 36v. 

[TREVOR20228]

That's just 3 battery right I can fit them under a seat so that won't be a problem 

[Bluebasser86]

That's 3 trolling batteries plus a starting battery for 4 total. 

[gim]

Might be a little overkill for only a 16 foot boat after you add all the batteries too.  Consider a 24 volt Power Drive instead.  You can still get more than enough thrust and shaft length with the Power Drive and eventually add on other features like I-pilot.

[00 mod]

Completely depends on your setup.  I have a 16 foot boat and a 80lb 24v Terrova and love it!  my  buddy has the 112 36v on his Z-9 and it is a beast!

Jeff

[Further North]

I don't believe it's possible to have "too much trolling motor" in a boat.

Batteries can be expensive and a pain to work around...and charging them can get kinda spendy too.

That said, I think you'd be fine with a 24 volt unit in that boat.

If I had to pick between a Terrova and a Powerdrive, it'd be Terrova, hands down, every time.  It is a far superior motor.

Deploying an stowing a Terrova is much easier than a Powerdrive, the foot pedal is a bunch better and if you decide to upgrade later rather than buy iPilot or Link now, it's easier to do on a Terrova than a powerdrive.

I've got a lot of "Gee Whiz!" electronics on my boat - Side and Down Imaging, Humminbird 360°...it's all great, and it all helps...but a Terrova will change how you fish if you don't try to use it like a cable steer motor.  Let it work for you and your days of screwing around with boat control are in the past...you can fish wile the motor does the work.

I upgraded to an Ulterra recently and it just kicks things up a notch.

If everything on my both was stolen and I could only replace one thing right away, it'd be the Ulterra.

[Kevin22]

You might find that you won't be able to use it past 70% due to the power. It will lunge the boat, and if you have a light front end you might not be able to turn without throwing yourself out. If you can't use it (or dont need it) past 70% then what's the point? 

I have a 24V 70 maxxum on a 17' and it is perfect. I'd like a tad more power for high current areas, but the 70 is way overkill on lakes. 

[Wayne P.]

I used 36V 105# thrust trolling motors on my 16' boat for six years. I had them rebuilt to 24V 82# last year to eliminate some weight.

Never had an issue with too much power or in danger of being thrown out of the boat.

Ran them on the highest speed setting lots of times to save time between locations.

No such thing as too much trolling motor power.

[Further North]

19 hours ago, Kevin22 said:

If you can't use it (or don't need it) past 70% then what's the point? 

Three things that I can think of right off the bat:

1. Increased battery life - both for all day on the water and overall life of the batteries. I'll run my Ulterra all day at 2.5 - 3.5 and never touch half my capacity.
2. When you need the power (heavy current, wind) you've got it.  The opposite of above - when I need to sat that bad girl on 10 to buck a nasty current I've got the power to do it.  I'm on a river here a few times a year where the current would stop me from getting to a very productive piece of structure if I had less power...and tops of the lower unit wrecking rocks are too shallow to run the big motor...
3. It's always better to run a motor at less than max - it increases its life.

One other comment: Once you get used to a Terrova/Ulterra (or even a Powerdrive with iPilot) you don't use them like a cable steer where you're nudging the power all the time - I leave mine on a slower speed pretty much all the time, and stop it when I want to work a hunk of structure.

 

[Ratherbfishing]

Unless you go to a lot of trolling-motor-only lakes, expect to fish in a lot of wind, waves, or current or will be out on consecutive days without access to electricity (for charging) a 36 volt system seems rather excessive for a boat that size.  In addition to having space for the batteries, access TO the batteries is also an issue.  Remember that these batteries all have to be hooked up together with heavy cables and invariably at one time or another, one or several will fail or weaken and need to be replaced.  My two cents.

[MickD]

OOmod, that is not a fishing boat.  Fishing boats have all sorts of lures and plastics scattered all over the platform.  You can't fool me.  :-)

 

[Slade House]

If you want a loud and jerky POS then sure get a Terrova.  I had one, it made more noise and racket then i cold handle.  I switched to the motorguide XI5, so much quiter, better Anchor lock mode, and less of a footprint on your deck 

[Further North]

10 hours ago, Slade House said:

If you want a loud and jerky POS then sure get a Terrova.  I had one, it made more noise and racket then i cold handle.  I switched to the motorguide XI5, so much quiter, better Anchor lock mode, and less of a footprint on your deck 

Hmmm...I ran a Terrova for 6 years on my boats...it was neither loud, not jerky.  Worked great, in fact.  Just upgraded to an Ulterra t the beginning of this season.

The XI5 is a great TM as well.

Either would work very well, unless you have Humminbird electronics, the the Minn Kota is the only real choice if you want them to link together.

[gim]

I had a MK Power Drive for years on my family's boat (17.5 foot Crestliner Fishhawk) and it was noticeably louder than my new Maxxum too.  It seemed to burn up a lot more battery power than the cable drive Maxxum too.  Maybe the age of the motor has something to do with it.  If you're going to be on your trolling motor for long periods of time, it seems that the cable drive mounts are better designed for it than the electric ones.  But the electric ones certainly have an advanted in spot lock, i pilot, etc that the cable steer ones don't.  Virtually every pro angler's bass boat is going to be equipped with a cable steer Fortrex or comparable motorguide model.