Thinking of new trolling motor

[Richard Rives]

Hello,

 

Pretty new to boating as I just recently acquired my first boat (2015 bass tracker 175 tfw w/75 hp motor) It has on it a 45lb thrust min kota that I am currently having some issues with. I am working on getting that resolved as it was great until about a week ago. My question is it currently has a 36" shaft on the trolling motor and the one that I am thinking of getting comes in a 48" or 54" shaft, will that even fit this boat? I don't know enough about them to know if you can change the shaft size on a trolling motor. The trolling motor I am considering is this one: MotorGuide Xi3-55FW Wireless Control - Sonar/GPS

 

TIA

[Russ E]

it will fit. there is a height adjustment ring you can adjust. the extra length will be sitting above the motor mount.

problem is if you currently have a 36 inch shaft and are going to a 48 inch shaft there will be quite a bit sticking above the mount and getting in the way.

it will also have a different hole mounting pattern.

[Richard Rives]

Can the motor just go lower into the water? Does that affect anything?

[MaineBassFishin]

2 hours ago, Richard Rives said:

Can the motor just go lower into the water? Does that affect anything?

I run a 52" maxxum on my tracker 185, if I'm fishing anything deeper than 3 feet or not inside the weeds, it's all the way down. If Im in shallow water I just pick it up. I could go with a shorter shaft, but I swapped this off my other boat. No real negative effects that I've ever noticed.

[Russ E]

3 hours ago, Richard Rives said:

Can the motor just go lower into the water? Does that affect anything?

you can , but you run a greater risk of hitting things.

[Dirtyeggroll]

15 hours ago, Richard Rives said:

Hello,

 

Pretty new to boating as I just recently acquired my first boat (2015 bass tracker 175 tfw w/75 hp motor) It has on it a 45lb thrust min kota that I am currently having some issues with. I am working on getting that resolved as it was great until about a week ago. My question is it currently has a 36" shaft on the trolling motor and the one that I am thinking of getting comes in a 48" or 54" shaft, will that even fit this boat? I don't know enough about them to know if you can change the shaft size on a trolling motor. The trolling motor I am considering is this one: MotorGuide Xi3-55FW Wireless Control - Sonar/GPS

 

TIA

My dad has that exact trolling motor on a Tracker 175 TXW. It comes out of the water with only moderate waves. The Tracker aluminum boats sit way up on the water in the front.

 

Also, he bought the wireless foot pedal for it and all he ever does is curse the thing. The wireless foot pedal he has is junk and not very responsive and also does things long delayed and sometimes erratically. From my understanding he is not the only one with that issue. He has no problem with the hand held remote, but good luck using a handheld remote and trying to make casts in the wind.

[Richard Rives]

So, after reading a bunch of articles, turns out I don't know how to measure a shaft. I did have a 45" shaft Minn Kota edge 45. So I went a completely different direction on my choice and I purchased a Minn Kota Terrova 45" shaft. I thought great, Minn Kota same length, easy install.... They are completely different bases so had to fill the old holes and drill new ones, but it fits great. Now today is the wiring day, oh and I had to get a new front mount fish finder because my Lowrance wasn't compatible with the new trolling motor. So I have that to wire and install as well.

 

The new trolling motor also comes with a gps satellite disk that needs installed, it shows it going in mid boat but I don't have anywhere mid boat to mount it, does anyone know if it can be bow mounted as long as there is some room from where the power lines run?

 

Thanks for the feedback and advice, the wireless pedal was a concern of mine as well after reading reviews.