Yall having trouble mounting a bow mount TM to a Vee hull?

Here is what I did to mount a trolling motor to my 12 foot Grumman vee. The TM is a 50 pound thrust Minn Kota powerdrive.

First of all, my boat has a handle up front, and we used that to our advantage. You can see said handle in this pic.

Now, we used some stock aluminum with an end view of this.
We find this aluminum very useful as a 5/16 bolt fits in the track, and can slide until you tighten it to make it adjustable.

Now, we cut the aluminum at the same angle as the bottom of the gunwale lip.

We ran a 5/16 (1/2 inch head) bolt down and used a nyloc nut.


The handle in the front of the boat, keeps the mount from sliding to the front. The widening vee of the boat keeps it from sliding back.
This rig is gonna have a few modifications in the future. Right now, the TM is not exactly level in the water. So, we are gonna space up the back, by having a piece of the same aluminum that goes above and below the gunwale, and has a cutout for the lip. See crude drawing.

Great tip!! I was wondering how I could mount a TM in the front of my boat as well. Keep us up dated on this project.



fishnfever

I forgot to mention that you don't have to use the funky stuff that we have. We have a bunch because a local company uses them for something, and has a whole bunch of scraps about 18 inches long. They sell those pieces for scrap at our local scrapyard. We buy these at a slightly higher rate (I think about 2 bucks a pound as these are the higher grade extrusions) than they scrap them for, but less than buying this stuff new. It would cost a LOT more than that new.
You could use almost any chunk of aluminum barstock you can find. Also, you don't need a metal cutting bandsaw to cut aluminum (although it is handy ) You can do it just fine on a miter saw with a rather toothy carbide blade. Just go slow. Or, you can go old school and use a hacksaw.

I figured some people might find this useful.

good stuff, and looks like you did a real nice job

esquired said:

good stuff, and looks like you did a real nice job

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This was actually a rig we come up with at 1:00 in the morning. We are known for working really late on something, then coming up with a temporary rig to last a few trips, and it works so well it stays a bit longer.
With this one, we needed the TM the next morning, so we spent a couple hours wiring the boat, and experimenting with different mounts. We finally settled on this one, as it was the simplest and didn't drill holes in the boat.
Our next version is gonna be a lot cleaner looking, and will make the TM level.

Post pics when you find your final solution lol. Im trying to figure out how to mount mine to my 12footer too.

rdneckhntr said:

Post pics when you find your final solution lol. Im trying to figure out how to mount mine to my 12footer too.

Click to expand...

Well, that may be awhile, as we have ZERO extra time around the house. Limits my fishing time to once a month at best. This one has worked fairly well for us. Our next one is just gonna be like the diagram in the first post. Basically, instead of having the aluminum just be below the gunwale, it would wrap all the way around it, and just have an angled cutout for the gunwale. This will actually have better support, and will level the motor out a bit.

Well I guess Ill post pics when Im finished with mine then lol. I took my boat out today with the hand trolling motor...lets just say im gettin my foot controlled on there SOON...

And old thread but a good thread


I did sorta the same thing but actually built a box from the inside of the V on one side

Wish I had found this thread back when I still had my 12' semi v. I never did come up with a good stable mount while I owned that boat.