Transom Mount Trolling Motor on Bow Bracket for Jon Boat
Pshh Pshh Pshh Pshh. The sound of ripples flopping up against your jon boat as you row your way to your favorite fishing spot. You look over, recalling that you’ve seen that duck before as it starts to pass you going up stream, thinking to yourself that you still have 10 more minutes till your half way there. Wishing you had some other way to get you to your fishing spot.
Maybe you already have that transom mount trolling motor mounted on you transom like its supposed to be?! Heading up river, no problem, no duck in sight! Its the first time you get to fish your favorite fishing spot in your, new to you, used jon boat. Awesome! Pull up to your spot grab your fishing pole and then the thought hit you. Like a bass blowing up on a top water frog, BOOM.
How am I going to fishing this coast line? You try fishing from the back of the jon boat, steering the trolling motor that is completely behind you mounted on the transom. Its annoying but tolerable. Then another thought pops into your head. I’ll just go backwards. Fishing from the back of the boat, the trolling motor is in front of you, and your heading down the shoreline transom first with your bow trailing behind you. It looks goofy, but its doing better than the first idea.
You had a great day of fishing, but you definitely need to do something about that trolling motor. You need to put that transom mount trolling motor up at the bow some how so you can operate it efficiently and effectively while fishing.
Positives of a Transom Mount Trolling Motor
- You can use it on your transom as a main source of propulsion.
- With a bracket, you can also mount it on the bow of the boat.
- Easy to operate.
- Less things to break compared to a bow mount.
The main thing that I like about having a transom mount trolling motor, is that I can move it from the transom, to the bow, and then back to the transom. All you have to do, when you switch it from the transom to the bow, is rotate the head of the trolling motor. On my trolling motor, its just one screw that I loosen, rotate the head 180 degrees, and then tighten the screw back down.
I attached a wiring kit on my transom mount trolling motor. This kit came with two plugs. One plug you put onto the end of the wires on your trolling motor. The other plug went onto the 15 foot wires that went to my battery. That way I can move my trolling motor to the bow with out any problems, and then when I move the trolling motor back to the transom, I can coil up that wire and keep it nice and neat in the back of my jon boat.
The Bracket
Now you need to figure out how to mount your transom mount trolling motor on the bow. When you do this, it needs to be reliable, sturdy, and hopefully last you a long time!
I made a bracket out of 3/4″ marine grade plywood that I had left over after rebuilding the deck on my bass boat. So I thought it would work perfectly! You could use regular plywood. Just make sure you seal the wood with a sealant. To help prolong the life of my bracket, and to make it look a little better, I painted it with an outdoors, weather resistant paint.
- Stacked two pieces of wood together to make the horizontal bottom piece and did the same with the vertical piece. That way it is around 1.5″ thick.
- Staggered the pieces of wood when I put them together to give the joint strength.
- Put wood glue where wood touched wood, and finished snugging up everything with stainless steel deck screws that were the appropriate length.
- I used 1.25″ length screws to fasten the wood together and used 1.625(1 and 5/8) at the joint. Pre-drill the holes.
- I used five screws to sandwich the wood together and used a total of 12 on the joint. Three screws going vertical on each plane, and the same going horizontal.
The footprint of my bracket measures 9″ by 8″. Just measure the width of the trolling motor mount and give yourself us much room as you want. Then I just made it a square. Also, THINK OF YOUR HEIGHT! Make sure that the vertical piece is tall enough so that your trolling motor won’t hit or interfere with anything on your boat.
Then paint if you want too. Get ready to mount it!
Mounting the Bracket to your Boat
Metal
Recently, I came across an awesome, new tool. It allows you to put a permanent nut on the under side of a piece of metal that you cant reach by hand. It acts like a rivit, but the underside has a threaded portion where you can thread a bolt into it. There is three different kinds of names for them; a rivnut, a nutsert, or a threaded insert. The cheapest one I could find, and could also get locally, was at Harbor Freight. Here is the link to the product on their site.
With that in mind, you could incorporate that threaded insert into that front step/seat of your jon boat. Then use a couple of bolts to fasten the transom mount trolling motor bracket to that metal step/seat. Depending on the size of the bracket, I would use at least four threaded inserts if not more.
I used the threaded inserts on my jon boat to fasten my deck down to seats below. That way the weight is being distributed evenly and that weight is being places where it is meant to be carried.
Mounting
When you go to mount this bracket, make sure that you can operate your trolling motor with out any issues. One thing to double check is how close the bracket is to the tip of your boat. When you put your trolling motor straight up and down, does it hit your bow at all? I would recommend mounting your transom mount trolling motor to the bracket and placing it in position to make sure everything works before you start drilling, making holes, and making things permanent.
When using the threaded inserts, follow the directions that came with your kit. This is how I remember using them;
- Figure out the placement of where you want to put your threaded insert.
- Determine the size of threaded insert you want to use
- Drill a hole that perfectly fits the size of your threaded insert. You should just be able to fit it in the hole but not be able to turn it.
- Use the hand tool and install the threaded insert.
Wood
When you go to mount this bracket, make sure that you can operate your trolling motor with out any issues. One thing to double check is how close the bracket is to the tip of your boat. When you put your trolling motor straight up and down, does it hit your bow at all? I would recommend mounting your transom mount trolling motor to the bracket and placing it in position to make sure everything works before you start drilling, making holes, and making things permanent.
I used long, stainless steel deck screws to mount my bracket to my wooden deck.
- Find where you want to place the bracket. Mark it.
- Look to see where you are going to pre-drill your holes. Make sure there are no screw heads, other pieces of metal, or anything you really don’t want to hit with your drill bit or put a hole in.
- Pre-drill your holes
- Screw that bracket in place!
Conclusion
Measure twice, cut once! Always double check everything before cutting, drilling, or screwing. Here is some quick tips and things to think of and watch for:
- Size of your bracket. It should be bigger/wider than you transom mount trolling motor mount.
- You are putting force on this bracket. Use your judgement. If you think your bracket should have a bigger foot, than make it bigger.
- Attach your transom mount trolling motor to the bracket and trial fit it on your boat before permanently mounting to your boat.
- Make sure you can fully operate the trolling motor while trial fitting it.
- Check the length of your trolling motor shaft to make sure it is long enough for your application.
- How are you going to power the trolling motor?
This article is meant to give you ideas. Change things to your liking, personalize it! Use thicker wood or thinner wood, short screws or longer screws, or even a different building material. Use your judgement and be safe. Make it yours!
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